One of the reasons I prefer renting DVDs from local video stores instead of signing up with an online service like Netflix is that I love browsing through the aisles, hoping to discover some random film that I’ve never heard of before. This is precisely what happened last week, when I saw the cover for 1996’s Eye for an Eye. When I turned the box over and read that the movie stars Sally Field, Kiefer Sutherland, Ed Harris, and Joe Mantegna, I was sold. I figured with a cast like that, the film had to be decent.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The movie opens with scenes that establish the daily routine of the McCann family. Karen (played by Field) is a typical multitasking mom, trying to balance work and family. Mack (Harris) is a loving, supportive husband and father. Daughters Julie (Olivia Burnette) and Megan (Alexandra Kyle) are regular kids with school activities and birthday parties to think about.
But this ordinary suburban existence is turned upside down when a stranger breaks into the home in the middle of the day and brutally rapes Julie before killing her. Julie had been talking to Karen on the phone when the intruder arrived, and she heard the entire attack while she was helplessly stuck miles away in traffic.
Sgt. Denillo (Mantegna) is assigned to the case, and after a while, he gets a lead on a suspicious deliveryman who was in the area that day. It turns out that DNA evidence from the crime scene does indeed match Robert Doob (Sutherland), so it looks like the D.A.’s office will have no trouble putting the guy away. But then Doob’s attorney gets the case thrown out on a technicality, and Doob is free to go.
Karen has trouble dealing with this turn of events. She ends up going to a support group filled with other people who have lost loved ones to violences, but she doesn’t derive much comfort from hearing everyone talk about how justice has failed them. That’s when she decides to take matters into her own hands and track down Doob by herself.
Karen gets Doob’s address from court records. While staking out his house, she gets to see what a terrible person he is. He flicks a lit cigarette at someone, dumps hot coffee on a stray dog, and randomly kicks dumpsters — all in one outing. As if that wasn’t enough to convince Karen that Doob had to go down, she follows him on another one of his deliveries and can sense that he will kill again soon.
Karen then talks to Sidney Hughes (Philip Baker Hall), a shady guy in the support group who helps members get in touch with their inner vigilante. Karen, who has already been taking self-defense and shooting lessons, convinces Sidney to help her set up Doob, and he agrees. He will provide her with a plan for setting Doob up, but she has to be the one to pull the trigger.
The rest of the film then deals with Karen’s ever-growing obsession with Doob and her inability to sit back and watch her daughter’s killer go free. The action culminates in a tense scene at Karen’s house where she is finally able to shoot Doob before he can get to her.
My Reaction: I thought Eye for an Eye had all the components for a fairly compelling, emotional story, so I was surprised to find that I was mostly unmoved by everything that unfolded on the screen. I think Sally Field is (usually) fantastic at playing the grieving mother (like in Steel Magnolias), but her performance was decidedly flat in this film. I didn’t get a sense of urgency or devastation from her character, which made her insistence on vigilante justice a bit out of place.
Then there was Ed Harris, whose ho-hum approach to the whole thing was completely unbelievable. I realize Julie was just his stepdaughter, but still… he seemed to be able to get back to his regular routine in no time, and was just as mellow about everything as ever. You’d think he’d spend a little more time trying to make sure Karen was really ok instead of just taking her word for it, but no. It’s no wonder she had a complete meltdown.
Kiefer Sutherland plays a good guy on TV, but he’s usually the villain in movies — probably because it’s so easy for him to look the part. Just give him long hair and some tats, and he’s as sinister as they come. But in this particular role, the writers made his nastiness seem almost cartoonish. In fact, I half expected to see him twirling his mustache at some point during the film.
Of course, the point of making Doob so detestable was to justify Karen killing him at the end. I notice the writers didn’t stick with the vigilante route, and instead made it an act of self-defense, which I felt was a cop out. As a result, the ending was as vaguely dissatisfying as the rest of the film.
Overall, I thought Eye for an Eye was a complete letdown. It has some of the elements of a good film, but things simply never came together in a powerful way. I give it just 4.5 stars out of 10.
A brand-new episode of CSI aired on Thursday night. It was called “Goodbye & Good Luck”, and finally brought an end to Jorja Fox’s tenure as Sara Sidle. I didn’t have anything against the actress or the character, but I was bored with the way the storyline has been dragged out all season long.