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.