Subscribers Only Content Area

Home

New Movies

All Movies

New Videos

All Videos

DVD

Search

(About Our Ads) "THE EYE" (2008) (Jessica Alba, Alessandro Nivola) (PG-13) If you've come from our parental review of this film and wish to return to it, simply click on your browser's BACK button. Otherwise, use the following link to read our complete Parental Review of this film. QUICK TAKE: Horror: A blind violinist's cornea transplant leaves her seeing things the donor saw, including fiery deaths, as well as visions of "the spirit world," dead people, and horrible accidents. PLOT: Professional violinist Sydney Wells (JESSICA ALBA), blind since a fireworks accident when she was five years old, receives a cornea transplant. Though Dr. Haskins (OBBA BABATUNDE) assures her that her blurry vision following surgery is normal, she worries when she begins to have visions of "things that aren't there," especially a figure called a "Shadowman" (BRETT HAWORTH), who takes away people who are dying (and usually afraid). As Sydney's visions become more violent (she sees people in fires and explosions, a boy who commits suicide and a young woman hit by a car), she becomes more concerned that these eyes are not "hers." When her therapist, Paul (ALESSANDRO NIVOLA), is skeptical, she becomes upset. This feeling is compounded when she realizes that when she looks in the mirror, she sees her donor, Ana (FERNANDA ROMANO) instead of the version of herself everyone else sees. At first, Sydney withdraws into her apartment, shutting the windows and wearing a blindfold in order to feel blind again. Then she decides to research the possible causes of her visions. When she learns Ana was from Mexico, she convinces Paul to drive with her to find Ana's mother, Rosa (RACHEL TICOTIN). Here they learn about Ana's difficult life, and her own distress over the visions she saw. OUR TAKE: 2 out of 10 Our new reviewing policy for films that aren't shown in advance to critics is that we'll only provide a paragraph or two about the film's artistic merits or, more accurately, lack thereof. After all, life is too short to spend any more effort than that on a movie that even the releasing studio knows isn't any good (which is why they hid it from reviewers before its release). Yet another remake of a decent Japanese horror film (2002's "Gin gwai"), "The Eye" is long on subjective camerawork, short on intelligent dialogue. Sydney (Jessica Alba), recipient of a cornea transplant, sees the same sorts of visions (warnings of deaths, visits from ghosts) that had troubled the young female donor. Increasingly unable to differentiate between the visions and the new sights of a material world, she doesn't get much support from her therapist or her conductor/mentor. Both are exceptionally rude to her, when you'd think emotional support would be helpful. And so Sydney takes control of her own nightmare, researching her donor and eventually making her way to Mexico , where Ana lived with her mother. It's an odd choice to send Sydney across the border to find her own salvation, while leading directly to more heartache for Ana's family. The privileged, Los Angeles-based concert violinist pays scant attention to the violence and poverty confronting her in the pueblo, but remains convinced that her mission, her reclamation of her life, is the most important thing. The film's visual tricks are plainly indebted to the Japanese original (really, the J-horror movement) and so, are effective and sometimes even smart (the shadows in the long apartment building and hospital hallways are aptly "ooky"). But the storyline is increasingly weak, collapsing entirely by the film's profoundly silly end. "The Eye" rates as a 2 out of 10. (C Fuchs) Reviewed February 1, 2008 / Posted February 1, 2008