Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Eye - Suspend Disbelief and Enjoy the Movie for what it is, February 11, 2008
The Eye is a suspense drama dealing with the paranormal. The story line is a cross between the Sixth Sense The Sixth Sense (Collector's Edition Series) and Deja Vu Deja Vu. While this won't be an Oscar contender, it is much better than advertised and worth the price of admission.
The Story
Movies about paranormal or psychic activities usually require you to suspend disbelief. The story requires more stretch than usual because Jessica Alba's character plays a wealthy, good looking professional violinist who is somehow still a single loner. When her eye surgery (cornea transplant) has her seeing ghosts, the stretches in the plotline seem tame by comparison.
The movie mainly consists of her trying to find out who her donor was and why she's seeing strange things. There's plenty of shock images of specters that scream across the screen to startle you. Still, this isn't exactly a "horror" movie and there's no real gore to speak of. The movie uses the vague uncertainty of her situation to make you feel more dread than fear.
The story line has a "surprise ending" that is done well enough. It's clear that the story was changed many times, perhaps at the expense of the movie. But in the end, it wraps up nicely enough as long as you don't over-analyze it.
Acting and Direction
As far as acting is concerned, Alba does a much better job than the critics will ever give her credit for. In fact, her performance makes this movie watchable. Considering some of the dialogue she has to work with, she does an admirable job.
Her supporting cast is used less effectively. The director decided to use Alessandro Nivola (Best Laid Plans, Laurel Canyon), as the doctor, in a deadpan way that neither showcases his acting skills nor aids in plot development. And Parker Posey (Broken English)is thrown in as the sister, showing up only enough to get a paycheck.
Effects and Cinematography
Special effects are good though not groundbreaking. There is some nice CG aided photography in the movie to show slow motion stills. It's used well, and it's clear that some technically strong people worked on the shooting and editing of this movie. Still, audiences have come to expect so much in terms of special effects that this movie will not leave people impressed.
Conclusion
Could the story have been much better? Yes. Could the acting and direction been improved? Absolutely. Still, this is a fun movie that's worth seeing in the theatre and will appeal to a wide audience of Alba fans from her sci-fi beginnings Dark Angel - The Complete First Season to her more recent role in Sin City Sin City. In fact, those into the paranormal will find enough to keep them interested.
The timing of this movie was the main error. It was released in the dead of winter when it's very difficult to get traction for movies like this. I hope that the DVD will include enough special features to be worth a buy.
Enjoy!!!
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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Was Blind, But Now She Sees, February 1, 2008
I hate it when a supernatural thriller makes me question things about the plot, namely its plausibility. "The Eye" is a film like that, and that's too bad because I really wanted to immerse myself in the thrills and chills without focusing on the specifics. Yes, this movie is creepy and tense, but it's also completely unbelievable, from the characterizations to the plot details to the ending, which is so ridiculous and contrived that I almost felt cheated. Pretty much the only believable part of the story is the supernatural element, which involves the transplanted eyes of a formerly blind woman seeing horrible things. It probably doesn't matter that I've never seen the Chinese film this is based on, or even that I have no idea how a medical procedure like a corneal transplant really works; what does matter is that "The Eye" succeeds in being frightening but fails at telling a good story.
Jessica Alba plays Sydney Wells, a concert violinist who went blind at age five because of an incident with firecrackers. Her sister, Helen (Parker Posey), feeling responsible for Sydney's condition, has her undergo a corneal transplant. Soon enough, Sydney is lying in a hospital recovery room with bandages over her eyes; when removed, she sees a world of blurred images and undefined shapes, which is normal so soon after such a procedure. But then she begins to see things that aren't normal, ugly, gray-skinned things that disappear and reappear at will. As her vision gets clearer, she soon discovers that they serve as postmortem escorts, leading ghosts away from their bodies and into another realm. Where they go and why they do this is never explained, but I guess it doesn't matter since they were effective.
Not so effective are the circumstances surrounding a series of visions. As she struggles to cope with newfound eyesight, Sydney's life is plagued by recurring nightmares and ghostly visitations, all of which incrementally reveal unfamiliar people and places. They all seem to have something to do with a devastating fire and the deaths of many people, but it's unclear as to what they mean or why she's seeing it. She eventually realizes that it has something to do with the eye donor, but any attempts at extracting information are flatly rejected. It's confidential, they say. They only one willing to help is her therapist, Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola), a man I neither believed in nor cared about. A character this out of place shouldn't be so quick to point out all of the ways Sydney will have trouble adjusting; he says that because she's been dependant on her other senses for so long, she won't know how to handle what she sees. This may be true, but he certainly wasn't able to convince me.
The search for the donor leads Sydney and Paul into Mexico, and this is pretty much where the film is at its worst. It isn't until then we learn that Paul is fluent in Spanish, which isn't unrealistic so much as it's convenient for the plot, as is the fact that the first real character they meet is fluent in English. I can't really describe this part without being annoyingly vague, so let us leave it at the fact that Sydney has been called there for something directly related to the visions she's been having.
This is the kind of plot that sounds decent enough on paper but doesn't quite measure up on the big screen. Much like the sequence in Mexico, most of "The Eye" is dependent on convenience, whether or not it's plausible. Sydney's casual attitude towards her new eyesight is downright maddening, as is the ease with which she navigates streets, hallways, stairs, and elevators. For someone used to doing all this blindly, she behaves as if she has been able to see her whole life. The character development is painfully lacking, especially when it comes to side characters that seem important but ultimately contribute nothing. Take, for example, Alicia Millstone (Chloe Moretz), a nine-and-a-half year old cancer patient living in the hospital: she seems desperate to be friends with Sydney, so much so that she enters Sydney's room whenever she feels like it and offers herself as a kind-hearted soul. But why does she feel so connected? Why does she care at all, considering her own struggles? This character was the weakest of the film, more so than the unbelievable Paul Faulkner.
One aspect of the film I did like related to Sydney's mirror image. When she fails to recognize herself in a picture taken by Helen, she realizes that her reflection is in fact not her own, but that of the donor. How psychological. How symbolic. How jaw-droppingly unnerving. Of course, it's nothing more than one shocking moment--the rest of the film is nowhere near as effective in terms of drawing the audience in. Had the story been halfway as good as it sounded, the film could have been something more. It would be too much to say that "The Eye" is a bad film, but it would be untrue to say that it worked, and I say this because it wanted to be more than just a run of the mill supernatural thriller. But when a film about sight is bookended by voiceover narrations that say you shouldn't trust your eyes, a supernatural thriller is the best it's ever going to be.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"I'm Going To Help You See The World As It Really Is" ~ Exploring the Possibility of Visions, Ghosts And Cellular Memory, June 6, 2008
The '08 film `The Eye' starring the enchanting Jessica Alba is a better than expected remake of an Asian horror film of the same name. Yes, it does start out rat a rather slow pace and any horror fan will immediately notice the liberal borrowing from other horror/supernatural films that precede I such as; `Ghost' and `The Sixth Sense' it eventually discovers a personality of its own and rewards the patient viewer with an overall satisfying experience when all is said and done. Jessica Alba not only looks amazing but delivers a strong performance as the blind violinist and corona recipient that unexpectedly receives the ability to foresee death and disaster along her newfound sight.
Definitely not destined to be a classic but I enjoyed it; -3 ½ Stars-.
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