The Eye

"The Crawling Eye," "Cat's Eye," "The Hypnotic Eye," "Dead Eye," Red Eye," "Blind Eye," "The Magic Eye," "The Evil Eye," "The Glass Eye," "Popeye," "An Eye for an Eye," "Eye of the Stranger," "The Hills Have Eyes," "The Beast With a Million Eyes," "Evil Eyes," "Deadly Eyes," "Night Eyes," "Snake Eyes," "Terror Eyes," "Cats' Eyes," "Black Eyes," "Dark Eyes," "Deadly Eyes," "Eyes of Laura Mars," "Eyes of a Stranger," "The Man With No Eyes," "Eyes Wide Shut," "For Your Eyes Only," "Eye Only Have Ice for You,".... No, wait, don't stop me; I'm having fun, even if I'm getting a little giddy.

You get the idea. There must be hundreds of movies with "Eye" or "Eyes" in the title, most of them horror flicks. So why not yet another one, this time with a title that shows remarkable conciseness; it's simply "The Eye." No beating around the eyebrows (or browbeating) with this title; it gets right to the point. Of course, like so many horror films these days, this 2008 release is a remake of an Asian picture, one that the Hong Kong-born Pang brothers made in 2002 called "Gin Gwai" (or "Jian Gui"), which translated means, as I understand it, "Seeing Ghosts." I like "The Eye" better. The title, I mean. More succinct.

OK, enough of this goofiness. Let's get down to some serious silliness. The first thing you've got to do to enjoy "The Eye" is accept Jessica Alba as a blind concert violinist. Yeah, I know what you're thinking--a disabled nuclear scientist maybe or a deaf neurosurgeon, but a blind violinist is a stretch. You'd be right. She was more convincing in "Dark Angel," "Sin City," and "Fantastic Four." Here, we've got to extend her a good deal of patience and good will to get through.

Alba plays Sydney Wells, a young woman who lost her sight when she was five years old. Now in her twenties and a successful musician, Sydney decides it's time for a cornea transplant--new eyes. Ah, if only she'd seen "Mad Love" ("The Hands of Orlac"), she'd have known that you don't go around transplanting body parts that once belonged to troubled people. At least in the movies you don't.

No sooner does Sydney get her new eyes than she begins seeing things moving in the shadows. She reaches out, but they're not there. One of the things she sees is the person in the hospital bed next hers, just after her operation; only the person has just died and has already been moved. Then she begins seeing whole new rooms around her, entirely new landscapes that aren't really there, and the recurring vision of a blazing fire. She even sees a strange face in the mirror in place of her own.

The eye specialist who tries to help her adjust to her new sight, Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola), thinks she's hallucinating. On the other hand, it's hard to trust him as he appears to have been watching too much "House." Instead of diagnosing her problem in a reasonable manner or recommending her to a good psychiatrist, he basically just yells at her.

Likewise, Sydney's sister, Helen (Parker Posey, wasted in a role that provides her maybe two lines), refuses to accept that Sydney's visions could be anything more than imagination, vivid nightmares brought on possibly by Sydney's new ability to see for the first time in years.

Is Sydney dreaming? Or has she inherited memories of the eyes' former owner--"cellular memory" as it's called. Why is she seeing dead people? Where are Bruce Willis or Haley Joel Osment when you need them?

"The Eye" moves along like almost every Asian horror movie you've ever seen, remake or not. It relies heavily on slow atmospherics rather than genuine suspense or even overt shocks, although there are several instances where the directors, David Moreau ("IIs," "Back to Saint Tropez") and Xavier Palud ("IIs"), do try to startle us with sudden loud noises and entities jumping out seemingly from nowhere. They're effective for the moment, but they cannot replace a sustained tension, which the film fails to produce.

"The Crawling Eye," "Cat's Eye," "The Hypnotic Eye," "Dead Eye," Red Eye," "Blind Eye," "The Magic Eye," "The Evil Eye," "The Glass Eye," "Popeye," "An Eye for an Eye," "Eye of the Stranger," "The Hills Have Eyes," "The Beast With a Million Eyes," "Evil Eyes," "Deadly Eyes," "Night Eyes," "Snake Eyes," "Terror Eyes," "Cats' Eyes," "Black Eyes," "Dark Eyes," "Deadly Eyes," "Eyes of Laura Mars," "Eyes of a Stranger," "The Man With No Eyes," "Eyes Wide Shut," "For Your Eyes Only," "Eye Only Have Ice for You,".... No, wait, don't stop me; I'm having fun, even if I'm getting a little giddy.

You get the idea. There must be hundreds of movies with "Eye" or "Eyes" in the title, most of them horror flicks. So why not yet another one, this time with a title that shows remarkable conciseness; it's simply "The Eye." No beating around the eyebrows (or browbeating) with this title; it gets right to the point. Of course, like so many horror films these days, this 2008 release is a remake of an Asian picture, one that the Hong Kong-born Pang brothers made in 2002 called "Gin Gwai" (or "Jian Gui"), which translated means, as I understand it, "Seeing Ghosts." I like "The Eye" better. The title, I mean. More succinct.

OK, enough of this goofiness. Let's get down to some serious silliness. The first thing you've got to do to enjoy "The Eye" is accept Jessica Alba as a blind concert violinist. Yeah, I know what you're thinking--a disabled nuclear scientist maybe or a deaf neurosurgeon, but a blind violinist is a stretch. You'd be right. She was more convincing in "Dark Angel," "Sin City," and "Fantastic Four." Here, we've got to extend her a good deal of patience and good will to get through.

Alba plays Sydney Wells, a young woman who lost her sight when she was five years old. Now in her twenties and a successful musician, Sydney decides it's time for a cornea transplant--new eyes. Ah, if only she'd seen "Mad Love" ("The Hands of Orlac"), she'd have known that you don't go around transplanting body parts that once belonged to troubled people. At least in the movies you don't.

No sooner does Sydney get her new eyes than she begins seeing things moving in the shadows. She reaches out, but they're not there. One of the things she sees is the person in the hospital bed next hers, just after her operation; only the person has just died and has already been moved. Then she begins seeing whole new rooms around her, entirely new landscapes that aren't really there, and the recurring vision of a blazing fire. She even sees a strange face in the mirror in place of her own.

The eye specialist who tries to help her adjust to her new sight, Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola), thinks she's hallucinating. On the other hand, it's hard to trust him as he appears to have been watching too much "House." Instead of diagnosing her problem in a reasonable manner or recommending her to a good psychiatrist, he basically just yells at her.

Likewise, Sydney's sister, Helen (Parker Posey, wasted in a role that provides her maybe two lines), refuses to accept that Sydney's visions could be anything more than imagination, vivid nightmares brought on possibly by Sydney's new ability to see for the first time in years.

Is Sydney dreaming? Or has she inherited memories of the eyes' former owner--"cellular memory" as it's called. Why is she seeing dead people? Where are Bruce Willis or Haley Joel Osment when you need them?

"The Eye" moves along like almost every Asian horror movie you've ever seen, remake or not. It relies heavily on slow atmospherics rather than genuine suspense or even overt shocks, although there are several instances where the directors, David Moreau ("IIs," "Back to Saint Tropez") and Xavier Palud ("IIs"), do try to startle us with sudden loud noises and entities jumping out seemingly from nowhere. They're effective for the moment, but they cannot replace a sustained tension, which the film fails to produce.