“The Eye”s have it! (or not)

As some of you may have noticed, I have an appreciation for the "female species." Most recently I sang praises to Angelina Jolie - and deservedly so. While I am not of the swinging persuasion, I can certainly understand the desire to do so.

This next show of appreciation for the female "stud" is Jessica Alba.

.................................................................................... Since the theatrical release of "The Eye" I
have been eagerly anticipating seeing this movie. Granted it does not hinder my eagerness that Jessica is the lead role, however due to the reviews of the original release, I was hesitant to use any brownie points I may have scored to get my husband to agree to watching this one (Jessica doesn't get naked after all... at least not that we can see. There is a shower scene that alludes to nudity, but does not actually deliver.)

So - finally on pay-per-view, I tricked my hubby into watching it with promises of nudity. Jessica's or mine.... does it really matter which?

Anyhoo, the movie starts out with a bang, not wasting any time getting to the premise of "why." Jessica plays the role of Sidney, a blind violinist who gets a donor transplant. We also learn her blindness was the result of a firecracker incident when she was 5....bummer.

What should have been so cut and dry becomes life altering and soon Sidney is seeing dead people and reapers. Initially she is convinced she is losing her mind, but as time progresses she begins to believe that what she is seeing is scenes from her donor's life and potentially untimely death.

This movie isn't horror - it's barely suspense. Mostly it's a type of self discovery of the main character. Think a hybrid of Audrey Rose, with Sidney's character physically experiencing events that happened to the life of her donor, and The Sixth Sense, with Sidney seeing dead people.

I'm not disappointed for having watched this movie, but I am thankful for having waited for the DVD release. I can also safely say that I will not seek out the original Hong Kong film Gin Gwai (2002) although it received surprisingly good ratings from the IMDB reviewers. Based on my penchant for B movies, it's probably safe to say that there is no accounting for taste. Wouldn't you agree?

I've read the ending of this one varies from the original. Had this movie had the alternative ending, it might have left more of an impact. As it stands however, it just felt empty; weak. There was such potential for this movie, but it fell so short of utilizing that potential.

Something else that I found simultaneously intriguing and disappointing with this movie was the portrayal of the "reapers." Their dark smoky essences were unsettling which I think is the feel the writers/directors were going for however the unsettling feeling wasn't due to their intensity, but rather the fact they oozed evilness. Their concept intrigued me; aids for each soul to cross over. But as Sidney pointed out, they act angry. Why? Are we all doomed to hell??? Unfortunately these answers are not provided.

Also, there was a mother who knew her deceased son's spirit was lingering. What was her story? Did the father beat the little boy, or just the mom? Did the boy commit suicide or did the father kill him? The movie touched on these questions very little, and never filled in the blanks.

This movie is not for everyone. You pretty much need to have an affinity for watching the genre versus the actual story. Luckily I watch some pretty awful movies, so I actually enjoyed this one to some extent. I probably won't ever watch it again, but at least I can say I saw it.