Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but the filmmakers also forgot that beauty is just skin deep. They've succeeded in making a surreal and sharp looking picture, full of interesting visuals and creative editing, but you forgot the story, stupid. As a result, "Eye of the Beholder" is a fine mess of a movie. From what little the audience is given, what can be determined is that Ewan McGregor plays "The Eye," a British agent trained in counter-surveillance, who uses a lot of hi-tech stuff to spy on his assignments. On one such job, he watches a sexy young woman, Joanna Eris, (Ashley Judd) suddenly kill a man. But instead of rushing to take her into custody, he quickly becomes entranced by her beauty (get it) and instead begins following her on a quest of sexual obsession.

This begins more as a passive trek, with "The Eye" merely following Joanna around as she continues to kill, but it quickly develops into more, with McGregor seeing himself as her guardian angel, protecting her from the authorities and even herself.

These two loners are not your run-of-the-mill spy and killer. They have mental problems, like normal people. They suffer, too. "The Eye" has to deal with the disappearance of his daughter (and does so by carrying on dialogue with the girl in his head); Joanna, as a child, found out one day that her daddy had left her without a trace. The spy guy and murderous girl, both with some abandonment issues, are just made for each other (get it again). Only "The Eye" can recognize the suffering inside Ms. Eris and see her true beauty. Her inner child is just screaming out, "Hey, serial killers have feelings, too."

So off the movie goes, racing from location to location, following this basic line: new city, new man, Joanna kills man, Joanna runs off.

"The Eye" watches. "The Eye" follows. This bizarre pace, with very little dialogue, does not reveal anything about anybody, leaving us at the end with a movie in need of a point.

Judd and McGregor sure look good, but like everything else in this film, there is nothing to be found underneath the surface. Judd ("Kiss the Girls," "Double Jeopardy") seems to like the thriller genre, and usually excels. But here, she does not convincingly portray the angst that leads her character to axe every guy that comes near. And McGregor is not much better.

Making matters worse, it seems the budget for the actors was used up with the two stars, and we are left with Jason Priestley in a meaningless role as a bad guy Judd encounters, and k.d. lang as "The Eye's" version of Bond's Q or Moneypenny. (One wish for the year 2000: musicians, make music. Movie stars, please make movies. This means you, Jewel and Jennifer Lopez.)

This movie comes from director Stephan Elliot, the maker of "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," a very enjoyable film. But here, he seems so interested in camera angles and making the film look hip and ultra-modern, that he forgot what he was doing in the first place.

This movie was based on the 1980 book by Marc Behm. You would think a book about an intelligent spy and his obsession with a neurotic killer would work well on film, especially in the effects-laden cinematic world in which we live. But again, the critic's mantra rings true: Read the book.

• Beauty in `Eye' is only skin deep
  
• It's a dog-eat-dog world in `Glengarry Glen Ross'
  
• St. Ed's players make dramatic detour with `Drive'