The Eye Review
by [email protected] (sdo230 AT gmail DOT com)February 5th, 2008
The Eye
reviewed by Sam Osborn
In the deserts of the February release slate, it either takes a teenage boy or a naïve film critic to get excited for the newest Jessica Alba vehicle, The Eye. Count me in the latter category, sauntering into the theatre twelve dollars poorer (Rogue Pictures didn't trust the press response with pre-screenings), looking forward to a film in which, if nothing else, pretty people got chased by some scary crap.
Well, Miss Alba is no doubt pretty, but what's chasing her rarely manages to be scary. Based on the Korean film of the same title, this American remake follows in the footsteps of similarly lame Asian imports such as The Grudge, The Ring, Dark Water, and The Messengers. Besides sounding like the lineup to an Indie-Pop music festival, this genre's titles have recently excited little to no interest from the nation's critics. Common critical denominators include the rift between Eastern and Western pacing; meaning that while American filmmaking keeps a story moving at a comfortably accelerated clip, Eastern horror doesn't mind slowing its plot to a steady crawl. These misaligned tendencies make for significantly shorter American remakes (Alba's The Eye is some 45 minutes shorter than its Korean cousin), and also for contrived additions to the original plotline.
It doesn't help that the story, though maybe original to Korean crowds several years ago, is nothing fresh to you and I. Sydney Wells sees dead people. And doesn't that ring a bell for any M. Night Shyamalan fans out there? Well the stories are certainly similar, but Sydney's (Jessica Alba) spooky superpower is the result of a long-awaited eye replacement surgery. No longer blind, Sydney has the eyes of a dead person; and for some unexplained reason this means she sees the souls of the recently-deceased being led into the afterlife by Father Death.
With neither the elegance nor patience of the original (and The Sixth Sense, for that matter), The Eye totters along on the shoulders of its leading lady. Miss Alba's not yet strong enough an actress to carry a film all herself; and judging by the boredom she doles out here, it's hard to believe she ever will be. There are fortunately a few token scares to be had. One set in a coffee house had me lunging backwards in my seat as the ghostie reached for my jugular. But otherwise this Eye kept my eyes drooping.
Sam Osborn
The Eye: Directed by David Moreau, Xavier Palud. Screenplay by Sebastian Gutierrez. Starring Jessica Alba, Parker Posey, Alessandro Nivola. Rated PG-13 for violence/terror and disturbing content.
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