Eye for an Eye (1996 film)

Eye for an Eye
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Schlesinger
Screenplay by	Amanda Silver Rick Jaffa
Based on	Eye for an Eye by Erika Holzer
Produced by	Michael I. Levy
Starring	Sally Field Kiefer Sutherland Ed Harris Beverly D'Angelo Joe Mantegna
Cinematography	Amir M. Mokri
Edited by	Peter Honess
Music by	James Newton Howard
Production company	Paramount Pictures
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	January 12, 1996 (1996-01-12)
Running time	101 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million
Box office	$26.9 million^[1]

Karen and Mack McCann are happily married with two daughters, seventeen-year-old Julie (from Karen's previous marriage) and six-year-old Megan. One afternoon while Karen is out shopping, Julie is violently raped and murdered after answering the door to a stranger, which Karen overhears on the phone. Detective Joe Denillo assures the McCanns there is enough DNA evidence to find and convict the killer, and encourages Karen to seek counselling.

At a support group, Karen meets other people who have suffered child bereavement, including Albert and Regina Gratz, and Sidney Hughes. During one meeting, Karen overhears Albert talking to Sidney about something which alarms Regina. Meanwhile, the DNA tests reveal Julie's killer to be Robert Doob, a delivery driver with a criminal record. However, at a pre-trial hearing, the judge dismisses the case because the defense did not receive a sample of the evidence for testing. Karen and Mack are distraught as Doob walks free.

While Mack is desperate to get back to a normal life, Karen becomes increasingly obsessed with Doob. She starts tailing him around town, learning where he lives and monitoring his activity while he goes out on deliveries. She attempts to warn one of his regular customers, a young Spanish woman, but she cannot understand as she does not speak English. Karen later learns that the murderer of the Gratzes' son has been killed in a drive-by shooting just days after being released from prison. Angel, another woman in the support group whose young son was murdered, tells Karen the best way to get over her grief is to focus on having good experiences with her surviving daughter.

When Doob discovers Karen is stalking him, he shows up at Megan's school when Karen comes to pick her up, and threatens to harm Megan if she continues following him. Worried for Megan's safety, and with her sanity declining, Karen approaches Sidney, who admits to setting up the drive-by shooting. After Karen demands his help, he agrees to plan a hit on Doob, on the condition that she has to carry it out, which Karen agrees to. She joins a self-defense class, which increases her confidence, helps rekindle her marriage, and improves her relationship with Megan. However, after Karen receives a revolver from Sidney, she discovers Angel lied about her son being killed, and that he is alive, and Angel is an undercover FBI agent investigating vigilante activity within the support group. Angel warns her not to go ahead with the hit; Karen then calls Sidney to withdraw her involvement.

Soon after, the woman Karen tried to warn is raped and murdered by Doob, and he is arrested. To Karen's outrage, he is freed yet again due to a lack of admissible evidence, and she decides to take matters into her own hands. While Mack intends to take the family on vacation, Karen deliberately orchestrates a work emergency as an alibi that forces her to stay behind, telling him and Megan to go on ahead of her. She then sneaks into Doob's apartment while he is away and trashes it, knowing that he will realize she was responsible. That evening, Doob breaks into Karen's home, and she confronts him with the revolver she received from Sidney. Doob declares that he has no personal reason for killing her daughter, simply stating it felt good to do so, and the two struggle. Believing Karen is powerless when she is forced down the stairs, Doob prepares to kill her while again declaring that it isn't personal, but to his shock, Karen reveals she still has the revolver, and she retorts that what she's about to do to him is personal before shooting a stunned Doob multiple times, killing him.

When the police arrive, Denillo tells Karen that he is on to her, but since he is unable to prove that Doob's killing was premeditated, he decides to tell his colleague that Karen acted in self-defense. At the same time, Mack and Megan return home, having also caught on to Karen's plan, and see the police taking away Doob's dead body. Mack quietly comforts Karen, understanding what she has done.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a score of 7% with an average rating of 3.6/10, based on 41 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Overwrought, thinly written, and all-around unpleasant, Eye for an Eye crudely exploits every parent's nightmare with deeply offensive results."^[2] On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 25/100 based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.^[3] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.^[4]

Roger Ebert gave the film one star (out of four), calling it "a particularly nasty little example of audience manipulation" and writing that it "is intellectually corrupt because it deliberately avoids dealing with the issues it raises." Ebert also compared the film to Dead Man Walking, saying "Dead Man Walking challenges us to deal with a wide range of ethical and moral issues. Eye for an Eye cynically blinkers us, excluding morality as much as it can, to service an exploitation plot."^[5] Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote: "Never in his varied career has Mr. Schlesinger made a film as mean-spirited and empty as this." She also felt "The sole purpose of Eye for an Eye is to excite blood lust from the audience".^[6]

Eye for an Eye (1996 film)

Plot

Cast

Critical reception

See also

References

External links

Wikiwand - on