The Eye (Two-Disc Special Edition) DVD Review
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 06.06.2008
Will it make you wish you were blind? No, but it won't make you ecstatic about the ability to watch it, either.
Directed by: David Moreau & Xavier Palud Written by: Sebastian Gutierrez
Starring: Jessica Alba - Sydney Wells Alessandro Nivola - Dr. Paul Faulkner Parker Posey - Helen Wells Chloe Moretz - Alicia Milstone Rade Serbedzija - Simon McCullough Rachel Ticotin - Rosa Martinez Fernanda Romero - Ana Cristina Martinez Kevin K. - Tomi Cheung Tamlyn Tomita - Mrs. Cheung Landall Goolsby - Alex Brett Haworth - Shadowman Obba Babatundé - Dr. Haskins Danny Mora - Miguel
Rated PG-13 for violence/terror and disturbing content
The glut of J-Horror remakes shows, regrettably, no signs of abating. Despite the critical and commercial bombs that the last several entries into the genre have become (see: One Missed Call and Shutter just for starters), Hollywood is intent on churning out more and more of these films for audiences with low expectations to flock to. However, after the commercial failure of several of these films, from the previously mentioned duo all the way back to Dark Water and Pulse, the studios have decided to shake things up…by looking for other Asian cinematic horror. Enter The Eye. Based on the 2002 Hong Kong/Singaporean/Thai film Jiàn Gui that was written and directed by the Pang Brothers, the remake at least showed that Hollywood was willing to look outside our favorite Asian island nation in order to find stories to rip-off for a quick cash grab. Picked up by Lionsgate and Paramount Vantage in late 2006, they signed on hot commodity Jessica Alba and fast-tracked the film for release in late January of this year, to a critical drubbing but moderate commercial success. Just over four months later, it’s gotten the DVD treatment.
The Movie
Alba stars as Sydney Wells, a solo violinist who was rendered blind at the age of five due to a fireworks accident involving her and her sister Helen (Posey). Wells is still a fully functional individual, despite the potentially crippling handicap; in an early scene, she prevents an inobservant bystander on the street from walking in front of a bus. She receives a cornea transplant—something the guilt-ridden Helen seems to want more then Sydney does. The operation goes flawlessly, and she is referred by her surgeon to Paul Faulkner (Nivola), a specialist whose job is to help her acclimate to the new world of sights she’ll be experiencing and processing what she sees correctly. Things seem to be going well; her sight, blurry at first, starts to come into focus, and everything she’s seeing is a new experience for her. Of course, this being a horror film, not all is well in her new world, and she starts seeing things that can’t be real; horrifying visions of the dead, and a mysterious figure that accompanies every death she encounters. Paul tells her she’s simply processing things she doesn’t know how to in a crossed-wires sort of way, but Sydney doesn’t believe that. Things turn even more bizarre when, shown a picture of her, she doesn’t recognize the face looking back at her. The face she knows, we discover, is that of the donor, and Sydney enlists a skeptical Paul’s help in discovering who the donor was and why she’s seeing the things she is.
Jiàn Gui, the original film that The Eye was based on, was a moody, atmospheric film that made for a flawed but creepy movie. Writer Sebastian Gutierrez, whose uneven resume consists of such films as Snakes on a Plane, the terrible The Big Bounce, and the better-than-it-should-have-been Halle Berry supernatural thriller Gothika, wisely sticks to the original storyline, but amps up the scares for an American audience used to the jump-scare world of modern horror. This is a stylistic approach that is standard to Hollywood horror, and one that is a huge mistake in this film, as it renders the film mundane. The story, which revolves around the very real theory of cellular memory, could have stood alone, as it is at least more inventive then One Missed Call and Pulse’s obsessions with ghosts in the machines, or The Ring and The Grudge’s love of onryō, the now-iconic (and clichéd) horror trope of the creepy vengeful ghost girl. Unfortunately, the film gets bogged down by presenting those jump moments, as well as the directing duo of David Moreau and Xavier Palud’s decision to present half of the film in the blurry world of Sydney’s point of view. While this would have been a good decision that worked in a few opening scenes, it’s blatant overkill to present it in as many scenes as they do, and the viewer ends up squinting almost as much as poor Alba does in the film.
Moreau and Palud, whose only previous directing credit was also together in the French/Romanian horror short Them, manage to create a creepy sense—albeit mostly in the quieter moments—and the film excels in the earlier parts when we see Alba as the blind woman re-adjusting to experiencing a world she hasn’t for almost two decades. The problem is this particular plot point is vastly under-developed; there isn’t nearly enough time spent in the beginning of film on Sydney the blind woman, as the directing duo seems to want to get right to the operation (and thus, the scares). This creates a problem in that Sydney goes straight to being a spooked victim within minutes of the film’s beginning. With no baseline of what Sydney was like when she was normal, if sightless, the viewer is completely unable to relate to the potentially interesting irony that by trying to become normal, Sydney has become as abnormal as one can be, and it’s a theme that is almost tangibly tragic in its lack of presence.
The acting in the film is a bit uneven, mainly due to the script giving the actors little to work with. Alessandro Nivola injects life into his role as the skeptical, occasionally asshole-ish vision specialist Paul. Despite being saddled with a passé “look at me, I’m so ruggedly sexy” five-o’-clock shadow, Nivola actually makes Paul one of the more interesting parts of the film, despite the script giving him little to work with. Parker Posey has even less to work with an almost no screen time as Sydney’s sister Helen, though even in the brief flashes, it’s obvious that Posey is growing with each film as an actress. As for the main role, Alba is entirely believable as a blind woman and a violinist, two traits that are difficult to pull off in a convincing manner. Whereas past actors who have tried to play blind, such Ben Affleck’s Daredevil, have failed, Alba is able to come off as quite believable. She is a radiant actress who, when presented with the challenges of portraying a certain type of character, can do it well. Where she has yet to succeed in a film, unfortunately, is when she has to rise above the script, and this hampers her performance here. Sydney is smart enough to do research on cellular memory and present this research to Paul as evidence of what she’s seeing, yet she’s unable to avoid investigating strange noises and sights, or explain why she’s acting crazy half the time. In these weaker scenes in the movie, Alba is unable to elevate it the way a better actress could, and while she shows promise, her performance is badly hampered by this.
The film suffers from an abrupt change of pace in the third act—a trip to Mexico to track down the donor—and the explosive climax, while it manages to build tension effectively, seems out of place with the rest of the film. It’s an admirable effort from the film-makers to cap the film off with something that’s both true to the original film yet uniquely American, but it doesn’t quite seem to work, much like the rest of the film.
Film Rating: 4.5
Technical Aspects
The Eye has a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, enhanced for 16:9 HD televisions, and the transfer is nicely crisp. Much of the film is dark, and it never seems washed out or hard to follow like some similarly colored films have been. Colors, when they’re present, are appropriately vivid, and it makes for a clean transfer that I can find no complaints with. Audio options are a very clear English 5.1 Dolby Digital, nice for those amped up moments of tension when the directors (sadly) choose to crank up the sound, and a Spanish 2.0 Dolby. A nice touch is the “Theatervision” option, which is the rarely-used English Audio Descriptive Service for the visually-impaired. This is not something I would recommend any people without vision problems watch, as it is rather annoying to watch when not needed. However, it provides an option for those with less-then-tolerable eyesight to enjoy the film and not get lost, and it gets the DVD a little credit in my book. Subtitle options are English and Spanish.
Technical Rating: 8.0
Special Features
One of the nice special features (and the reason it’s a two-disc DVD) is the digital copy on Disc Two. This copy is able to be transferred onto your computer and then to portable devices. It’s a nice added bonus that’s been on a few DVD’s so far, and will hopefully catch on.
Deleted Scenes: (11:39) There are a host of deleted scenes, from the less then thirty seconds to a few minutes long, that provide some extraneous details. Outside of one particular one during the Mexico excursion, they’re all entirely extraneous and the film is probably better off without them.
Birth of the Shadowman: (1:37) File this featurette under “far too short.” It shows Brett Haworth, the grotesquely thin actor who portrayed the “shadowman” apparition, talking about portraying the role, and some of the motion capture of the process.
Becoming Sydney: (4:46) This short about Alba’s training to properly portray the violinist and blind portions of her character is about half of each, and is your standard promotional piece of this variety. Nothing amazing here, but it’s serviceable and not too boring.
Shadow World: Seeing the Dead: (8:31) A very interesting, if basic, discussion of cellular memory and the nature of ghosts. They get a parapsychologist who unfortunately, like most of his colleagues who participate in these sorts of things, sounds a little crackpot-y, as well as a few more reliable experts, and intersperse it with the cast members talking about their beliefs. Worth a watch.
The Eye: The Explosive Grand Finale: (6:08) This featurette details the big, fire-laden finale of the film, from the conceptual stage through the actual shooting process. Another standard production featurette, though there is a certain amount of humor to be found in the directors playing around with the models like kids as they discuss the blocking of the scene.
Theatrical Trailer: (2:09) Not one of the most impressive trailers of the past year, to be sure; it revealed a bit too much. But it’s here, for what it’s worth.
Also From Lionsgate: (7:45) We get trailers for the upcoming and impressive-looking B-horror film Midnight Meat Train, a FearNET advertisement, a trailer for FearNET’s first film Catacombs starring One Missed Call’s bland lead Shannyn Sossamon and Alecia “Pink” Moore, and the red-band trailer for The Descent
Special Features Rating: 6.0
The 411: While you have to give the film-makers credit for drawing from more original material then their Asian horror-remaking colleagues, as well as sticking to the plotline, The Eye is ultimately another weaker entry into the horror genre. The cast tries admirably, but handicapped by the script and in Alba's case, her own inability to rise above the hokey parts, they're not able to inject enough life into the story to make it good. Poor stylistic choices and the Hollywood need to jack up the scares are enough to push the film out of the "Recommendation" category. An excellent transfer and decent (if not great) special features lift the DVD above the film itself, but into what is, at absolute best, a rental recommendation...and that only if you're a J-Horror fan.
