Julia's Eyes

I watched the Julia's Eyes world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival a couple of days ago, and I have to say that although I was entertained, it did fall short of my expectations. Seeing how the film was produced by Guillermo del Toro, I was really hoping for a horror/thriller on par with Pans Labyrinth or The Orphanage.

Julia's Eyes does have an original idea at its core and that's what keeps you guessing and entertained through the duration of the film. Unfortunately the film does fall into some cliché horror jump scares and the plot does not completely come together. It feels as though the filmmaker started with a great idea but wasn't fully able to pull it all together cohesively in the end. I want to keep this review spoiler free so I'm not going to get into any plot details, but suffice to say that the antagonist's plot line does not come to a rewarding conclusion.

That said, I think there is a lot to like here, the acting is great, some wholly original ideas are explored and there is enough tense and truly scary scenes to keep most horror/thriller fans happy.

Julia's Eyes is a film I enjoyed on the whole and I think people should seek out.

The same team - actress (Belen Rueda),producer (Guillermo Del Toro) , musician (Fernando Velazquez) , cameraman (Oscar Faura)- who made ¨The orphanage¨ bring us another terror film , ¨The Julia's eyes¨ or ¨Los Ojos de Julia¨ . And again a wonderful Belen Rueda as semi-blind woman in a movie with intense sequences of horror and suspense . The story deals with a mature woman named Julia (Belen Rueda in a double role) married a psychologist (Luis Homar) , she is slowly losing her vision by a degenerative ill whilst attempting to investigate the mysterious death of her twin sister named Sara (Belen Rueda) , also blind , who supposedly committed suicide . An old woman (Julia Gutierrez Caba) leads her to Baumann Center where Sara had relations to other blind women . Later on , finding alone in a house is terrorized by strange events . She is pursued by a psycho but can't hide in the dark . This is a highly suspenseful and cerebral mystery that tells about a woman losing his sight and being helped by his husband . It's a battle of wits between an intelligent almost blind woman and an evil villain and winds up pitting two rival, the obstinate blind woman and the brutal psycho against each other in order to save herself and destroy them both.

The film contains tension , thriller, drama , mystery , plot twists and shocks , including decent scares with tense terror sequences especially in its final part , in a creepy denouement , near of the end with a crazy killer trying to murder her . The picture is thrilling and some moment brilliant, and the actors are quite reliable as Belen Rueda , Luis Homar and special appearance by veteran Julia Gutierrez Caba . Although is sometimes slow moving and stagy , however is entertaining for continuous suspense . Belen Rueda is sensational in one of her best films along with ¨El Orfanato¨ . Sinister and mysterious atmosphere is finely photographed by cameraman Oscar Faura . Suspenseful and stirring musical score by Fernando Velazquez who previously composed for successful terror films as ¨The orphanage¨ , ¨For the God of others¨ and ¨Devil¨ . The film is well produced by the great producer/director Guillermo Del Toro . The motion picture is professionally written and directed by Guillen Morales who formerly realized ¨The uninvited guest¨ also dealing with violent confrontation among two characters . The movie will appeal to suspense enthusiasts and Belen Rueda fans. Rating : acceptable and passable . It's well worth watching and contains some really eerie scares and disturbing images .

A respectable blend of drama and horror, using strengths of both but also succumbing occasionally to the weaknesses.

Suspense is present from the very beginning, building to an exciting and unexpected climax, unfortunately falling a bit flat afterward. In fact, the last 30 seconds of the film somewhat blemish the drama of the story as a whole, mostly because the ending touches on a relationship that was hardly explored and not at all significant through the rest of the film, partly because of the focus on the very thing that makes this movie good: the constant twists and turns in the story. This also leads to some ideas that are passable but don't make nearly as much sense as they're supposed to; particularly the whole "people who aren't seen"/"There was no man with her (Sara)"/"Don't look at me!" motif. I still don't get it, but it has little impact on the story anyway.

I believe the entirety of the story could have used some fine tuning, and run time could have been trimmed by 10 to 15 minutes... But overall it's engaging, well acted, and sets an excellent and fitting mood visually. Thrillers that can't project the protagonist's experience to the viewer fail horribly... this movie does an outstanding job providing a sense of confinement that fits the title character's world, and this is where its greatest strength lies.

Although character relationships are a bit thin and suspense doesn't hit many high notes, this is a fairly exciting thrill ride and a good effort all around. One last thing, I would recommend watching it without distraction... the mood is more visual and in the flow of the story than it is intellectual or suspenseful, and it's easy to lose interest if you step away for a few minutes.

After the death of the blind Sara (Belén Rueda), who hung herself in the basement of he house, her twin sister Julia (Belén Rueda) suspects that she was actually murdered. Julia has a degenerative problem in her eyes and is losing her sight and she temporarily moves with her husband Isaac (Lluís Homar) to Sara's house to arrange her funeral. Julia goes to the Centro Baumann for blinds where Sara frequented and she learns from the others blind users that Sara had a boyfriend.

Julia is chased by a mysterious man but the police inspector Dimas (Francesc Orella) does not believe on her. Julia follows the last steps of Sara trying to find the identity of her secret lover. Julia is surrounded by deaths and weird events while she loses her sight. Is she also delusional?

"Los Ojos de Julia" is an atmospheric film but flawed and misguider. The director gives the sensation of a supernatural story and ends like a "giallo" blended with "Blind Terror". The name of Guillermo del Toro, who is the producer, is also used to mislead the viewers. Belén Rueda has a magnificent performance; the cinematography and the camera work are excellent; the plot is intriguing; but the resolution is very disappointing. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Os Olhos de Júlia" ("The Eyes of Julia")

Julia, (Belen Rueda) like her twin sister Sara suffers from a degenerative nerve disease which is slowly but surely turning her blind, with her twin having succumbed to total blindness earlier. When her sister dies, apparently of a suicide, Julia feels there's something not quite right. Her sister wasn't depressed, and in fact had been looking forward to a potentially curable operation. Plus, there's rumours of Sara having had a mysterious boyfriend. But why didn't he go the funeral? Doubted by her Psychologist husband Isaacs (Lluis Homar) Julia resolves to investigate. But her disease is getting worse, and she keeps feeling that somebody is watching her every move. Is she cracking up? Or is something more sinister at play here?

Julia's Eyes starts off very promising indeed, with a gripping first hour, as director Guillem Morales ratchets up the tension with some clever visual tricks and an increasingly dark and creepy tone, as well as some entertaining red herrings.

However, by the third act, it unfortunately gets kinda... silly. It also unfortunately has a rather ludicrous revelation, as well as some clichéd bad decision making on the part of the protagonist. It also could have been a leaner affair, being rather needlessly overlong.

As well as this, the film doesn't really cover all the elements of its rather layered plot as well as it could have, with one or two loose ends that will very probably have the viewer raising a suspicious eyebrow.

That having said, it has some decent performances, is pretty absorbing and again, has a nigh on excellent first half.

Any horror or chiller fan should find much to like here, but ultimately it comes across as rather dissatisfying, considering its ambition.

7/10- A solid enough film, that's worth checking out overall, but potentially could have been excellent.