Reel Deal: Beholder is a Bore

By TARA DEMPSEY AND RYAN LEACH

Ewan McGregor stars as a British intelligence agent and Ashley Judd is the suspect of his obsessive surveillance in Eye of the Beholder.

McGregor's character, the isolated high-tech spy known as "The Eye," is assigned to follow Joanna Eris (Judd), who is suspected of blackmail. While in pursuit, he decides not to turn her in but rather to follow her all over the country, videotaping her actions, recording her conversations and being careful not to reveal himself.

Eris is constantly moving and changing her appearance with the help of an unlimited supply of wigs, as she parades around under pseudonyms and takes a lethal hand to almost any man who expresses interest in her.

RYAN'S REVIEWIf beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say, then this holder says, "I don't think so." The first five minutes of the movie were good and about 25 minutes toward the end were decent. Other than that, the movie had problems.

Three particular problems stick out in my mind. First, McGregor was too much of a sap and his character was not believable. Second, K.D. Lang was absolutely horrible as an agency operator, granted she was given bad dialogue, but it seemed a struggle for her to get out a single word. Third, McGregor sees his daughter during flashbacks so much that I wasn't sure if it was the present or the past. As if this isn't bad enough, all of a sudden she leaves and we never see her again.

The biggest problem, though, involves the movie being anticlimactic. There were so many different stories involving Judd and random guys. After each guy there is a little build, but never any real resolution. Then the ending of the movie is just plain bad.

I was very disappointed because there were some potentially good things about the movie, but they never used them to their advantage, which made it even more frustrating. D

TARA'S TAKEThe previews for Eye of the Beholder aren't a very good indication of what the movie is about. Unfortunately, the actual movie doesn't clarify matters much either.

The movie attempts to be mysterious by presenting a detective (McGregor) who is sent on a mission (the details of which are very unclear). During the process of surveillance he somehow feels he needs to protect a woman (Judd) who seems hell-bent on killing every man she comes in contact with. Unfortunately, this attempt at mystery leaves the viewers isolated from the movie, wondering exactly what the plot is.

It is never a good sign when you're thinking more about a character's hair than the actual plot of the movie, but that was the case for me and this movie. Judd was given some great wigs to pull off her chameleon look, and I was more entertained by that aspect of the movie than anything else. Her insistence on erasing the past by casually throwing away her belongings in wastebaskets across the country was also cool.

Although this is by no means a comedy, the movie got a bunch of laughs when the resident bad boy of the film Ñ Beverly Hills 90210's very own Jason Priestly Ñ stepped on the screen. His bleached blonde hair and pathetic goatee provided most of the entertainment, although it was not intentional and he was only on screen for about 15 minutes.

The movie seemed really long as well. I was only in the theater for an hour when I thought I felt the sunrise approach. The vague plot and incredibly anticlimactic ending were very disappointing as well. Save your money. D+