1. Eye of the Beholder The Eye
Stephen Elliott, director of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of The Desert, decides to indulge in noir with horrible results. Featuring Ewan McGregor as the protagonist simply stated as The Eye, he is an intelligence agent who while searching for a socialites son witnesses his murder by Eris, played by Ashley Judd and thus begins a tale of obsession, desire and loss. The film, a remake of the 1983 French film Deadly Circuit would certainly work under the hands of someone who knows and understands the intricacies of noir, for example Hitchcock. The problem is Elliott mashes together various pieces of differing visual styles into what is ultimately an incredibly boring and dreary film that produces terrible performances One the problems with McGregors performance is that he is so incredibly monotone throughout; any traces of emotion that the script begs for are merely uttered back in a bored, un-enthused way. It really does seem that McGregor just felt no passion for the film and the admittedly decent premise of the film is wasted under poor direction, a woeful script and easily one of the worst acting performances McGregor has given. The contrast in how a performance full of wit, charm and charisma such as McGregor gives as Renton in Trainspotting compared to this really is startling. Here is hoping he never gives a performance this underwhelming again.