Eagle Eye review

An Orwellian thriller that deals with the consequences of the pervasive influence of technology in today's society, Eagle Eye sets its sights high. But although it has an interesting premise and a number of intriguing ideas, as a convincing drama it falls short. Too many flaws, and the requirement to suspend disbelief to an absurd level, render it ineffective as a legitimate and plausible indictment of a Big Brother society.

With the original idea coming from executive producer Steven Spielberg, it should be expected that it's essentially more a popcorn movie than a political one. It certainly has all the requisite ingredients: car chases, explosions, dramatic stunts and big set pieces. Directed by D.J. Caruso, Eagle Eye moves at a relentless pace. From its opening scenes of an elaborate US Military operation targeting an Afghan terrorist, it rarely lets up. Perhaps the hope being that it allows little time to dwell on the frequent incredulous moments.

The central character is the 23 year-old slacker Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) who quit Stanford and now works at a Copy Copana store in Chicago. After discovering his normally empty bank account mysteriously has a balance of $750,000, he returns to his small apartment to find it filled with an arsenal of weapons and terrorist supplies. When his phone rings and a woman's voice informs him he has "been activated" and instructs him to flee immediately as the FBI are on the way, he finds himself thrust into the middle of some bewildering Kafkaesque ordeal. Ignoring her, he is captured and interrogated by agent Thomas Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton) who tells him "This is a bad time to be in the terrorism business" and that he's in a "shitload of trouble."

When the disembodied woman's voice calls again, it's to alert him to an opportunity to escape. Seconds later a crane crashes through the side of the building. Jerry then becomes the subject of a massive federal and military manhunt, during which he finds himself partnered by Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan), the single mother of an 8 year-old boy scheduled to play at Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center in front of the President. Rachel has also been contacted by the same woman, who is able to orchestrate their escape by extraordinary means. Traffic lights turn green, every TV, monitor, billboard they glance at has instructions. As Jerry says, "She can probably turn a train into a talking duck."

Shaw discovers that his pursuit is connected to his twin brother Ethan, an Air Force public relations officer who had died just days before in an apparent car accident. The mysterious voice turns out to belong to a powerful government computer called ARIA that has jurisdiction over almost everything and access to detailed information on everyone. Jerry and Rachel follow instructions as they try and unravel exactly what it is they had been selected for.

LaBeouf, who reunites with his Distrubia director, is excellent as the tightly wound Shaw, while Monaghan is equally effective as his foil. The most engaging performance though comes from Thornton as the beleaguered FBI agent Morgan. Eagle Eye's strongest element is the inventive manner of communication used by ARIA. As far-fetched as some methods seem, the scary thing is how close we are to creating such a society, one where every aspect of our lives is being monitored. Apparently Spielberg's goal is to have audiences walking out of the theatre and turning off their cell phones in fear. Instead, my inclination was to call him and say, if that was his intention, he should have had a smarter script.

Kevin Murphy