Eye of the Beholder

Canada/UK/USA/Aust 1998

Reviewed by Ken Hollings

Synopsis

Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.

Washington DC, the present. While using his surveillance techniques to investigate a possible diplomatic scandal, an anonymous British intelligence agent witnesses a premeditated murder committed by a mysterious young woman named Joanna Eris. Obsessed with memories of his lost daughter, whose ghostly image appears in a photograph he has taken of Joanna inside a museum, the agent continues to spy on her as she travels across America committing further murders.

Digging into Joanna's past he discovers that she was abandoned by her father as a child and has subsequently attempted suicide several times. Starting to involve himself more actively in Joanna's life, the agent kills a blind San Francisco millionaire whom she was intending to marry. After beating up a young junkie who was threatening Joanna's life, he loses track of her, only to discover that she has checked into a Boston hospital after suffering a miscarriage. The two finally meet in Alaska where the agent helps her to evade capture by the FBI. Joanna dies during their escape but not before admitting that she recognises the agent as the man who photographed her in the museum.

Review

The true dandy, poet Charles Baudelaire once observed, reveals himself through his attention to detail. Stephan Elliott, responsible for the flamboyant cross-dressing road movie The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, has dispensed with the sequins and glitter this time around, as he packs his central characters off on another trans-continental journey of discovery. Sporting a bedraggled red nylon anorak and lugging a battered suitcase crammed with complex surveillance devices, Ewan McGregor's British intelligence agent would appear to be the antithesis of the ironic, preening self-involvement displayed by Priscilla's very dandified drag queens. But the agent's bruised professionalism and sense of weary detachment as he leads his shadowy existence in Washington's bustling diplomatic community are reflections of an equally mannered and complex sensibility.

The grim satisfaction with which he posts compromising video evidence of a grubby after-hours sexual liaison on the internet during the opening sequence betrays the mark of a true artist. He's a technological aesthete, beyond human society, and the homicidal Joanna, played with mercurial hauteur by Ashley Judd, is right out there with him. While the agent carries out distracted conversations with a fondly imagined memory of his missing daughter, Joanna has been indoctrinated by her parole officer Dr Brault never to reveal herself to any man who does not need to know. Both are so determined to conceal their true feelings, maintaining a distance between voyeur and subject that is as much emotional as it is physical, that details are all that remain to bring them together.

This finds neat expression in Eye of the Beholder's richly detailed mise en scène which is full of obsessive strophes and allusions, ranging from astrological symbols and depictions of angels to the agent's gradual acquiring of Joanna's drinking and smoking habits. Joanna's change of name and appearance, together with the agent's growing collection of forlorn snow globes as the pursuit takes them from one city to the next, suggest just how deep Elliott's passion for formal precision runs. The film's design and camerawork also hint at very deliberate shifts in both time and place. New York is filled with sophisticated echoes from 40s Hitchcock thrillers; San Francisco is a golden 60s bohemian paradise; Alaska has been transformed into a 50s wilderness of chrome dinettes and trailer parks.

McGregor's and Judd's attentive, focused performances never allow their characters to become lost in Elliott's fractured, virtual America. The sense of pain and despair seep through: "The last time I blinked," the agent confesses to a vision he has of his daughter when Joanna flees outside the range of his electronic sensors, "I lost you, I lost my wife and I nearly lost my mind. She's all I've got left." Considering how few scenes they share together, Joanna's dying moment of recognition in the agent's arms has a true breadth to it. A solid supporting cast fleshes out the film's intricate fascinations. Geneviève Bujold's pointedly brusque performance as Dr Brault endows her with a presence extending far beyond her limited screen time, while singer k.d.lang brings remarkable warmth to the part of Hilary, the agent's Washington handler who interacts solely with McGregor's voice and scanned image on a computer terminal. Jason Priestley puts a mean, predatory shimmer into his portrayal of the sleazy cowboy smackhead who tries to kill Joanna. His unwashed and peroxide tangle of hair lets just enough of the dark roots show through to remind us how important attention to detail can be.

Credits

Director
Stephan Elliott
Producers
Tony Smith
Nicolas Clermont
Screenplay
Stephan Elliott
Based on the novel by
Marc Behm
Director of Photography
Guy Dufaux
Editor
Sue Blainey
Production Designer
Jean-Baptiste Tard
Music
Marius De Vries
©Filmline International (Beholder) Inc./Eye of the Beholder Limited
Production Companies
Behaviour Worldwide in association with Village Roadshow-Ambridge Film Partnership present a Hit & Run/Filmline International production
With the participation of SODEC Société de développement des entreprises
culturelles.Quebec Government (Tax Credit Program)/The Canadian Film
or Video Production Tax Credit
Executive Producers
Hilary Shor
Mark Damon
Co-producer
Al Clark
Line Producer
Manon Bougie
Associate Producers
Grant Lee
Charles Gassot
Production Executive
Chris Chrisafis
Production Co-ordinators
Hélène Muller
2nd Unit:
Adam Gutowski
2nd Unit Production Manager
Jacqueline George
Unit Manager
Gilles Perreault
Location Managers
François Fauteux
Suzanne de Carufel
Anita Bensabat
Post-production
Supervisor:
Georges Jardon
Video Co-ordinator:
Geneviève Dufault
Assistant Directors
Jennifer Jonas
Carl Desjardins
Trent Hurry
2nd Unit:
Bobbie Blyle
Continuity
Marie La Haye
Casting
Vera Miller
Nadia Rona
US Associate:
Emily Schweber
Additional:
Rosina Bucci
2nd Unit Director of Photography
Nathalie Moliavko-Visotsky
Camera Operators
Nathalie Moliavko-Visotsky
Sylvaine Dufaux
Robert Guertin
François Daignault
Steadicam Operator
François Daignault
Video Playback/Computer Images
Telecine Multimedia
Visual Effects Supervisors
Daniel Leduc
Georges Jardon
Digital Visual Effects
Hybride Technologies
Special Effects Supervisor
Jacques Langlois
Les Productions Intrigue
Graphic Artist
Guy Lessard
Art Director
Real Proulx
Key Set Decorators
Michèle Forest
Suzanne Cloutier
Sonia Venne
Set Decorators
Guy Blouin
Martine Kazemirchuk-Giguère
Sylvie Desmarais
Draughtsman
Raynald Langelier
Costume Design
Lizzy Gardiner
Wardrobe Supervisor
John Stowe
Wardrobe Mistress
Martine Picard
Make-up
Key Artist:
Francine Gagnon
Artist:
Claudette Casavant
Consultant:
Ashlee Petersen
Key Hairdresser
Marie-France Cardinal
Hairdresser
Linda Gordon
Main Title Design
Sylvie Talbot
End Titles Design
Lise Dagenais
Optical Supervisor
Serge Langlois
Strings Performed by
Electra Strings
Orchestra Leader
Jules Singleton
Orchestral Arrangers
Chris Elliot
Matt Dunkley
Music Score Co-ordinators
Felicity De Vries
Hannah Joseph
Music Editor
Dina Eaton
Music Programmers
Alexis Smith
Steve Sidelnyk
Pete Davis
Marius De Vries
Score Mix Engineers
Geoff Foster
Mike Nielsen
Orchestra Recordist
Geoff Foster
Soundtrack
"I Wish You Love" - Chrissie Hynde; "Home of the Whale" - Caroline Lavelle; "Busker's Song (The End of the World)" - Dr. Robert
Sound Design
Martin Pinsonnault
Sound
Claude La Haye
Viateur Paiement
Hans Peter Strobl
Re-recording Mixers
Hans Peter Strobl
Bernard Gariepy Strobl
Studio Co-ordinator
Martin Cazes
Sound Editing Co-ordinator
Sofie Essiembre
Dialogue Editor
Guy Pelletier
Sound Effects Editor
Martin Pinsonnault
ADR
Supervisor:
Viateur Paiement
Vicky Sampson
Recording Engineers:
Scott Jones
Jo Caron
Foley
Artist:
Jérôme Décarie
Re-recording Engineers:
Jo Caron
Benoît Leduc
Stunt Co-ordinator
Stéphane Lefebvre
Weapons Wranglers
Paul Barette
Christian Labrie
Snap Shots Senc
Animal Wrangler
Raymond Ducasse
Pro-Films Animals
Film Extract
Wasp Woman (1995)
Cast
Ewan McGregor
Eye
Ashley Judd
Joanna Eris
Patrick Bergin
Alex
k.d. Lang
Hilary
Jason Priestley
Gary
Geneviève Bujold
Doctor Brault
Anne-Marie Brown
Kaitlin Brown
Lucy
David Nerman
Mike
Steven McCarthy
Paul
Vlasta Vrana
Hugo
Janine Thériault
Nathy
Don Jordan
Toohey
Maria Revelins
Ms Keenan
Lisa Forget
nurse
Gayle Garfinkle
head waitress
Russell Yuen
federal agent 1
Stephane Levasseur
federal agent 2
Al Vandecruys
Alaskan federal agent 1
Sam Stone
Alaskan federal agent 2
Mauro Venditelli
boss
Josa Maule
receptionist
Carole Collin
secretary
Stephanie Sbrega
Sandra
Philip Le Maistre
gas attendant
Michel Perron
fat businessman
Maria Bircher
waitress
Howard Bilerman
waiter
Cara Reynolds
young Joanna
Leonard Farlinger
young Joanna's father
Jason Baerg
gay man
Michelle Sweeney
Salvo
Donovan Reiter
local 1
Amanda Davis
girl
Carl Crevier
chauffeur
Dr Erwin Goldberg
doctor
Garth Gilker
airport guard
James Hieminga
Wade
Bob Brewster
cop
Charles Powell
prisoner
Thomas Karle
fat man
Louis Negin
bartender
Al Clark
redneck
Una Kay
Hilary's mother
Merlee Shapiro
Reva desk clerk
Vera Miller
Nadia Rona
tea trolley ladies
Erik Johnson
local 2
Certificate
18
Distributor
Universal Pictures International
9,867 feet
109 minutes 38 seconds
Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS
In Colour
Super 35 [2.35:1]
Note
The 'Eye' of the title is a graphic rather than the word.
Last Updated: 20 Dec 2011