EYE FOR AN EYE
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1996 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 3.5 Alternative Scale: *1/2 out of ****
United States, 1996 U.S. Release Date: 1/12/96 (wide) Running Length: 1:41 MPAA Classification: R (Violence, profanity, mature themes) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Sally Field, Kiefer Sutherland, Ed Harris, Beverly D'Angelo, Joe Mantegna, Alexandra Kyle, Charlayne Woodard Director: John Schlesinger Producers: Michael I. Levy Screenplay: Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa based on the novel by Erika Holzer Cinematography: Amir M. Mokri Music: James Newton Howard U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures
EYE FOR AN EYE, the latest from director John Schlesinger (MIDNIGHT COWBOY, SUNDAY, BLOODY SUNDAY), opens with a promising, if disturbing, premise: a woman stuck in traffic hears the rape and murder of her teenage daughter over a cellular phone. This is the kind of incident that can cause a complete psychological collapse, but the script isn't interested in real drama. And, when the killer gets off on a contrived technicality, EYE FOR AN EYE doesn't ask many tough moral questions, and those few it does pose, it has no intention of really addressing. This is a misfired attempt to create a new THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE- type thriller, not an examination of psychological and emotional trauma. The result is as fundamentally distasteful as last year's THE TIE THAT BINDS.
The McCanns are a happy, middle-class American family: parents Karen (Sally Field) and Mack (Ed Harris), 15-year old daughter Julie (Olivia Burnette), and little girl Megan (Alexandra Kyle). One morning, everything is perfect, but by nightfall, it has turned to a nightmare. A psycho-sicko deliveryman named Doob (Kiefer Sutherland) rapes and murders Julie while her mother listens helplessly on a car phone. After being arrested, the killer is let go because of an improper procedure on the part of the DA. Doob promptly begins stalking another woman and making threatening advances towards Megan. Karen, convinced that justice is impotent, takes measures of her own, including obtaining a gun and learning how to use it. Then, with the aid of two vigilantes, she plans her retribution, Old Testament style.
A solid cast doesn't always equate to a good movie, as EYE FOR AN EYE demonstrates. Sally Field, Ed Harris, Kiefer Sutherland, and Ed Harris are all accomplished actors, but their performances here are adequate at best. (And who can blame them, given the low quality of the material?) Sutherland is especially shortchanged by his character, a lunatic nasty with no redeemable or human qualities whose sole purpose is to be hated by the audience. For EYE TO AN EYE to work on its own least-common-denominator terms, this is necessary.
The longer the film runs, the more preposterous the story becomes, abandoning any sort of semblance of reality in favor of the ultimate revenge scenario. EYE FOR AN EYE forces its way towards an inevitable conclusion. It's not believable, but it is predictable, and that's exactly what a thoroughly manipulated audience will want at that point. Does it take much savvy to guess which character is going to get their just desserts in the movie's final reel?
EYE FOR AN EYE is one of three pictures currently in theaters about parents coping with the deaths of children. Both of the others, THE CROSSING GUARD and DEAD MEN WALKING, are vastly superior, and the latter, a thoughtful examination of some of the same issues that drive this film, makes EYE FOR AN EYE look like puerile rubbish. Despite paying lip service to high ideals, Schlesinger's movie has no moral compass, and is only interested in delivering cheap thrills. And, while there's a place for that in movies, appropriating this particular storyline for such a base intention feels uncomfortably like a defilement.
James Berardinelli
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