Not having seen the original Chinese film, “Jian Gui,” on which “The Eye” is based, it is hard to say if this version is as good as the original. However, though “The Eye” was entertaining and had a few good scares, I can’t see it inspiring remakes in other countries, so it’s probably a safe bet that it does not live up to its source.

Here we have Jessica Alba as Sydney, a blind violinist about to have a corneal transplant to restore her vision. Once the transplant is complete, she almost immediately starts seeing things she shouldn’t — even before her new vision has cleared she sees shadowy figures whisking people away.

As her eyesight improves, the visions become more frequent, clear and disturbing, and she sees them when she is awake and asleep. She turns for help to her sister Helen (here, in a rare turn as someone nice and normal, is Parker Posey) and to the ophthalmologist assigned to help her transition into sight: Dr. Paul Faulkner, played by Alessandro Nivola.

Helen hears her sister’s troubles with the worry and concern appropriate for an older sibling who feels responsible for the younger’s condition (it was a childhood accident in which both sisters were involved that caused Sydney’s blindness); however, it is worry that Sydney might be going crazy. Faulkner responds to Sydney’s tales of strange visions with a rumpled, unshaven disregard: He thinks she is so overwhelmed by the new information her eyes are giving her that she is misinterpreting it.

It’s not until her sister shows her a photo of herself, that Sydney gets a clue about what is happening to her. She doesn’t recognize the woman in the photo because that is not who she sees in the mirror. Sydney does some research on transplants and learns about cellular memory (where the cells of the transplanted material exert influence on the new body, for example craving a food the donor used to crave but the recipient never did before).

Armed with this information, Sydney believes it is the cornea donor she sees in the mirror and the donor’s visions she sees when she dreams. By using guilt, Sydney gets Faulkner to find the name of her donor.

The premise here of cellular memory is not exactly unique, but it is interesting. The added element of second sight being the memory conveyed in the transplant is also intriguing. Unfortunately, it isn’t just cellular memory at work here. The donor had an agenda — her cornea not only came with the ability to see the shadowy figures of death’s escorts, but the donor herself was haunting Sydney, apparently because she wanted to finally prevent a disaster since no one had believed her when she was alive.

Advertisement

This felt like a weak spot. Learning that her donor had been able to see death before it happened would have been enough to explain to Sydney her own visions. It wasn’t that the whole thing about trying to save her donor, who is already dead, by preventing a disaster that would somehow redeem her was too far-fetched, it was just weak.

Though Alba showed little emotional depth in playing Sydney, she did do an impressive job appearing blind, semi-blind and newly sighted with blind habits, like continuing to touch walls as she walked down hallways, even though she could see now.

A general lack of emotional depth may be one of the biggest problems here. Posey, as the sister, displayed the greatest emotion, but she wasn’t actually in the film very much.

Nivola was hard to read most of the time. His main emotional vibe was as someone trying not to read too much into his extremely voluptuous new patient’s touchy-feely reactions. So he seemed to overreact by being meaner than necessary, as if distancing himself.

The creepiest thing about the movie was the shadowy death escorts who clearly did not like to be seen. They moved with lightning speed and snarled. These escorts also provided some of the scarier moments of the movie. Though I didn’t jump much myself, people around me did.

Two of the best moments in the movie involved a mirror. In the first, a sweet but tense scene has Sydney, with vision still blurry, making faces at herself in the mirror.

Its sweetness comes from the totally normal thing she does: explore her own face. The tension comes because the audience has been set up to expect some surprise to come at her during this activity.

It was a good blend of innocence and anxious anticipation.

The second well-done scene with a mirror was where she compares herself in the mirror with herself in the photo. No matter how many times she scrunches her eyes and opens them again or turns on and off the light, she sees only the other girl reflecting back at her. By not allowing her vision to blur so she can see her true self, it is even more compelling.

The end was a bit of a disappointment. At one scene near the end, an event happens that caused the whole audience to groan. Somehow it felt like a cheat. Perhaps there was no good way to end the movie, but the resolution here made me, for one, want to roll my eyes.

(2 1/2 stars)

Amanda Brooks can be reached at 737-1056 or at abrooks@lompocrecord.com