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(About Our Ads) "EYE OF THE BEHOLDER" (2000) (Ewan McGregor, Ashley Judd) (R) Alcohol/ Drugs Blood/Gore Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude Frightening/ Tense Scenes Guns/ Weapons Heavy Heavy Extreme Moderate Heavy Imitative Behavior Jump Scenes Music (Scary/Tense) Music (Inappropriate) Profanity Mild Minor Extreme None Extreme Sex/ Nudity Smoking Tense Family Scenes Topics To Talk About Violence Extreme Extreme Moderate Moderate Extreme QUICK TAKE: Suspense/Thriller: A surveillance expert's obsession with his latest assignment, a murderous, disguise-laden woman, becomes increasingly dangerous as he progressively becomes more involved in her life. PLOT: A British intelligence agent, known only as "The Eye" (EWAN McGREGOR), is an expert at surveillance. Assigned to track a possible embezzler, The Eye instead begins to follow Joanna Eris (ASHLEY JUDD), a mysterious woman who murders that man. Getting help from Hilary (K.D. LANG), his contact back at headquarters, The Eye trails this woman, watching and listening to her every move. Although is work is solitary, The Eye isn't alone as he's often accompanied by visions and/or hallucinations of his long-lost daughter, Lucy (ANN-MARIE BROWN, KAITLIN BROWN) with whom he casually interacts. The Eye isn't a happy man, assuming all blame for the loss of his wife and daughter, but he's good at what he does and continues his surveillance of Joanna. As such, he finds himself on a cross-country pursuit of her as she travels from city to city, always assuming a new look and identity. Learning of her criminal past, The Eye visits her former mentor, Dr. Brault (GENEVIEVE BUJOLD), while Joanna takes up with several men, including Alexander Leonard (PATRICK GERGIN), a blind vineyardist, and Gary (JASON PRIESTLEY), a sadistic druggie. Despite her murderous ways, The Eye finds himself increasingly becoming obsessed with Joanna and soon begins intervening in her life, repeatedly preventing her from being captured by the police who are also now on her trail. As the surveillance expert becomes progressively more involved in Joanna's life, he opens himself up to the possibility of facing the wrath of black widow type ways. WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT? If they're into suspense thrillers, they probably will, while the presence of McGregor (the latest "Star Wars" film) and Judd ("Double Jeopardy") may draw in others. WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R For some strong violence, sexuality, language and brief drug content. CAST AS ROLE MODELS: EWAN McGREGOR plays a surveillance expert who becomes obsessed with a murderer and helps her elude police. He also smokes a great deal and uses strong profanity. ASHLEY JUDD plays a severely troubled woman who kills several people, smokes throughout the film, has sex and gets pregnant from a man she's seeing, and uses strong profanity. PATRICK BERGIN plays a blind vineyardist who becomes Joanna's latest suitor. GENEVIEVE BUJOLD plays a woman who taught Joanna how to survive on the streets. She briefly drinks, smokes and uses strong profanity. K.D. LANG plays The Eye's assistant back at headquarters who uses some strong profanity. JASON PRIESTELY plays a guy who helps Joanna when her car breaks down, but then ends up beating her and injecting drugs into her body. CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit? Then read OUR TAKE of this film. (Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below). OUR WORD TO PARENTS: Here's a brief look at the content found in this R-rated suspense/thriller. Profanity is extreme with at least 27 "f" words being used, while other profanities and colorful phrases are also uttered. Violence is rated as extreme with several people being killed or injured (via knife and gun), often with rather bloody results. Some of those moments may be suspenseful and/or unsettling to some viewers (and they're accompanied by plenty of suspenseful/ominous music), and those responsible for the violence have extreme cases of bad attitudes. A sexual encounter is seen that includes graphic movement, some nudity and related sounds. Other encounters are implied (since the protagonist ends up pregnant), while some non-related nudity is also present (from real people as well as some paintings showing bare-breasted women) as are moments of the protagonist being scantily clad. Drug paraphernalia is seen, and in one scene a character heats up what appears to be heroin and injects it into a semi-conscious woman's arm. Drinking also occurs and the film's two central characters smoke more than ten times each. Some tense family moments are also present in the form of those two characters lamenting their respective familial losses. Should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness for yourself or anyone in your family after that summary, we suggest that you take a closer look at our more detailed content listings. ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE We see Joanna with a drink at a man's house. Joanna makes a comment about substance abusers. People order/have drinks on a train and Joanna finally gets the cognac she ordered. Joanna has a drink in a bar and it appears that she's had several. A cop pours cognac for himself and Joanna. People in a bar have drinks, including Alexander who has brandy. We see Joanna holding a glass of wine. In a flashback we see a man dressed like Santa drinking booze straight from a bottle. Dr. Brault and The Eye have drinks in her office. The Eye drinks in a bar. Gary and Joanna have wine. Later, Joanna finds all sorts of drug paraphernalia at his place (syringe, razor blade, etc.) and she asks him about it. He states that he doesn't like to "blast" alone and asks if she wants to join him. She declines, but after that, he beats her nearly unconscious, uses a spoon to heat up some heroin or some similar drug, and then uses a syringe to inject it into her vein. Joanna and The Eye have drinks. The Eye offers Joanna some cognac back at his place, but she declines. BLOOD/GORE After Joanna repeatedly stabs a man to death, both she and the victim are rather bloody. After she disposes of the body (that's wrapped up in a bloody plastic sheet), she stands in the rain letting the raindrops wash the blood from her body. We see the face of a drowned man who's still underwater (in a train's bathroom). A man's shirt is bloody after he's been shot and killed. The Eye has some bloody scrapes on his face. A man's face is very bloody after being in a car wreck and the driver has some blood on his head as well. We see a needle being inserted into a vein. Gary's face and the floor around him are both very bloody after The Eye pummels him wearing brass knuckles (that are bloody, along with The Eye's hand, after this). Joanna's lip is a little bloody after a man beats her. A person is injured or dead (and is bloody) after crashing their car into a frozen lake. DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE Being a murderer, Joanna obviously has extreme cases of both types of attitudes. A man and a woman may have an affair in his office (they have sex, the affair part is unclear). A man believes that his son is stealing money from a trust. Some men on the street harass Joanna. As The Eye becomes more obsessed with Joanna, he eventually starts protecting her by collecting her murder weapons and even fires upon the police to create a diversion so that she can escape. A waiter tries to cheat Alex, who's blind, by stating that he gave him the wrong bill to pay for his drink. Gary beats up Joanna and then shoots heroin or some similar drug into her vein. FRIGHTENING SCENES Scenes listed under "Violence" and/or "Blood/Gore" may also be tense and/or unsettling for some viewers. GUNS/WEAPONS Sniper Rifle: Equipped with cameras and other surveillance gear and aimed by The Eye like a rifle, but initially only used to collect data. Later, however, he does use it as a rifle, firing several shots at a car while trying to make it stop. Knife/Handgun: Used by Joanna to kill various people. Brass knuckles: Used by The Eye to pummel a man who was beating Joanna. Handguns: Used by The Eye to threaten a man and later used to shoot at police as a diversion to help Joanna escape. The police shoot back at him with their guns. Later, The Eye loads blanks into his gun and Joanna tries shooting him with it (not knowing there are blanks in it). IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR Phrases: "Fat f*ck," "F*ck me dead," "F*ck wad," "Mind your own f*cking business," "Sure as sh*t," "Stick your business where the sun don't shine," "Toots" (woman), "Nuts" (crazy), "Bastard," "Cut the crap," "Loser," "Stupid bitch" and "Piss off." JUMP SCENES As The Eye peers into a train window, a drowned man's face suddenly appears there. MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE) An extreme amount of suspenseful and ominous music plays during the film. MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE) None. PROFANITY At least 27 "f" words (2 used with "mother" and 1 written), 2 "s" words, 7 hells, 4 asses (1 used with "hole" that's written), 2 craps, 1 S.O.B., and 3 uses of "Oh my God," 2 of "For God's sakes" and 1 use each of "Christ," "For Christ's sakes," "Jesus" and "Jesus Christ" as exclamations. SEX/NUDITY As The Eye records their activity from across the way, we see a man and woman having sex in his office. As such, we see his bare butt between her legs, as well as movement, as they have sex with her lying on a desk or table and him standing (we also hear some sexual sounds). Later, we see still frame of this sexual act. As The Eye watches through surveillance equipment, we see Joanna strip down to her bra and panties in front of a man who's kneeling before her. Having laid plastic down on his floor and blindfolded him with his tie, Joanna has this man thinking that something kinking is going to occur, but she stabs him to death instead. We briefly see Joanna's bare butt as she stands out in the rain, nude and at night, to wash blood from her body (the rest of the time we see her bare back and up). We see the nude body of a murdered man wash out of a bathroom on a train, but don't see any explicit nudity. We briefly see the side of Joanna's bare butt, as well as her bare breasts as she lowers herself into a bathtub. As the camera angle then switches to a view from above her, we see part of the side of her bare butt/thigh in the bubble bath. We see Joanna in garters and a high-cut teddy/lingerie that shows part of her bare butt. When a cop pays her a visit, she doesn't try to cover up how she's dressed in front of him. After he hints that she's in trouble for leaving the scene of an accident, she suggestively comments that they could come to some sort of arrangement and he moves closer to her (she's seated) saying that they probably could. It never happens, however, as she grabs his gun and shoots him dead. We see Joanna wrapped just in a towel. In Dr. Brault's office, we briefly see several paintings showing bare-breasted women as well as a small, somewhat abstract sculpture showing a male and female figure in a sexual embrace. We learn that Joanna is pregnant from unseen encounters with Alexander. We briefly see the shape of a woman suggestively dancing behind The Eye at a bar. Gary asks Joanna "have you started without me" as she baths in his bathtub. SMOKING Both The Eye and Joanna smoke more than ten times each, while Dr. Brault smokes once and background characters smoke in several scenes. TENSE FAMILY SCENES The Eye laments his "long-lost" daughter, Lucy, and assumes all blame for her and her mother's disappearance from his life. Although it initially would seem that Lucy is dead, we later get hints/info that his mother packed her up and left when he was away on assignment. Joanna is still troubled by, and briefly talks about her father disappearing from her life when she was just nine. Joanna grieves over the death of her daughter (but we're never quite sure if the baby was born or if Joanna had an early miscarriage). We do see the headstone that reads that the child was fifteen days old (but since Joanna never looked very pregnant and unless a great deal of time passed in between scenes, the miscarriage seems most likely). TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT Joanna's behavior and attitude (her many disguises and killing people but then bawling her eyes out afterwards, etc.). Why The Eye becomes so obsessed with Joanna and thinks that he needs to help her. Why The Eye repeatedly has and interacts with visions of his daughter. VIOLENCE Joanna repeatedly stabs a man to death with a knife resulting in her and the victim being covered in blood. It's implied that Joanna kills a man she meets on a train as we see his body wash out of a bathroom that was filled with water. After some men on the street harass Joanna, she hits two of them. As one then starts to follow her, a passing taxi hits him. Joanna grabs a cop's gun and shoots and kills him (just as he thought something sexual was going to happen between them). After hearing that Alexander and Joanna are getting more seriously involved, The Eye rushes up and punches the blind man and then repeatedly kicks him on the ground before running off (and telling him that Joanna will end up killing him). Trying to prevent them from leaving, The Eye opens fire with his rifle on the car in which Joanna and Alexander are riding. A final shot causes the car to lose control and be struck by an oncoming truck that then drives it into a wall. We then see that Alexander is dead and very bloody. Gary punches Joanna and throws her to the bed where she rolls off and hits the floor. He the smashes her into a table, and steps down onto her hand as she tries to reach a razor blade to use against him. He then picks her up by her hair and smashes her against the wall (and we hear him kick her, but don't see this). The Eye then shows up wearing brass knuckles and proceeds to repeatedly punch Gary (and kicks him), resulting in quite a bit of blood on Gary's face and the floor around him. The Eye then holds his revolver on him, but decides not to shoot. Seeing that the police have cornered Joanna, The Eye opens fire on them with his handgun as a diversion to allow Joanna to escape. After blowing out a windshield with his gunfire, The Eye races away as the police shoot at him. Joanna tries shooting The Eye with his gun, but it has blanks inside it (we know this beforehand). A person is injured or dead (and is bloody) after crashing their car into a frozen lake. Reviewed January 24, 2000 / Posted January 28, 2000