Eye of God [DVD]

Though non-linear, with numerous flashbacks, this film is extremely well-structured, as it tells the story of three people: an ex-convict who has embraced fundamentalist Christianity with a zealot's devotion, a young woman from an abusive background who befriends the ex-con, a teenager who has experienced the worst kind of abandonment and separation anxiety with far worse to come, and a sheriff narrator, whose cynical attitudes toward God are based on the experiences he reveals.

The young woman has a glass eye, the result of a youthful accident. The glass eye, of course, sees nothing, just as the woman herself cannot see the evil descending upon her until too late. And the eye of God -- symbolically made of glass too, also sees absolutely nothing as it allows evil to flourish in God's own name. (I doubt this movie is on Jerry Falwell's Top Ten List, and, if it were, he wouldn't be Jerry Falwell.)

The acting by all the principals and the directing are superlative. I hope someday this slice-of-life crime drama will receive the recognition it deserves and be released in a DVD version.

This movie is difficult to categorize, but it would make an ideal double bill with the Charles Laughton-directed "The Night of the Hunter," except that in the earlier movie, goodness triumphs. Not so in "The Eye of God."

Why this film has gone almost unrecognized baffles me, and this does not bode well as a statement about the filmgoing public. Why this film is out of print is even more unsettling. Tim Blake Nelson's elliptical editing may get in the way of some, but his deft hand with performers and pacing rivals any auteur. The story and screenplay have been sufficiently summarized before me herein. I do not recall a film tackling spiritual ambiguities in such an astonishing fashion since Michael Tolkien's 1991 THE RAPTURE. A dark, troubling slice of Southern Gothic, with a knockout performance by Martha Plimpton, EYE OF GOD will leave you thinking for weeks, maybe months.

An unsung, minor masterpiece of independent cinema from director Tim Blake Nelson. One of those rare films that mananges to say EXACTLY what it means to say-no more, no less (i.e., no pretension, no padding, no hammy grandstanding). Nelson tells his tale in less than 90 minutes, but the film will haunt you for weeks. The creators of the overblown, overlong and overacted "21 Grams" and "Mystic River" could have gleaned a few lessons from studying Blake's lean yet boundlessly deep screenplay about the dichotomy of good vs evil in us all. Nelson is obviously an "actor's director", and inspires lead actress Martha Plimpton (of the Carridine dynasty) to deliver her most accomplished performance to date as a somewhat dense but sweet small town waitress. Ample support is provided by Kevin Anderson as Plimpton's ex-con husband who has rushed her into marriage after a sight-unseen "pen pal" courtship. Anderson's character has "seen the light" and appears to be on the road to making a solid citizen of himself (then again, appearances can be deceiving). The under-appreciated Richard Jenkins (the father's "ghost" on HBO's "Six Feet Under") is a standout as Anderson's parole officer, as is a very young Nick Stahl (another HBO star-currently the lead character in "Carnivale"). Veteran thespian Hal Holbrook deserves a mention, with one of his better latter-day performances as the world weary sheriff. Lucinda Williams' aching cover version of Nick Drake's "Which Will" opens and closes the film; an interesting choice of music as it works perfectly in both setting the tone for the story and providing a fitting coda to the emotionally devastating final shot. I can't recommend this one enough. I also second the motion with the reviewer who pointed out that the director's commentary on the DVD is atypically insightful and Zen-like (like the screenplay!).