Eyes of Laura Mars

Well its a John Carpenter's kinda forgotten film It has many Stars in it Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones. Well its a good Thrill ride.
From Collected Cinema
Now there's actually a double link with these two films; not only were they scripted (or at least co-scripted) by John Carpenter but both star Tommy Lee Jones before he became very famous. I've got to say I've never been wildly interested in Tommy Lee Jones in the past. He's a good actor for sure (see: Academy Award for The Fugitive) but he never really plays the hero in anything. John Carpenter on the other hand is probably my favourite director and I've picked up almost every film he's even been tangentially involved.

Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)

Eyes of Laura Mars was written by a young Carpenter and sold just prior to the success of Halloween. Faye Dunaway stars as the titular character, a controversial photographer noted for current series of photos, all of which involve lurid scenes of staged murder and female nudity. In a classic whodunnit storyline, people closely associated with Laura start being murdered by having their eyes stabbed. Mars would likely be a suspect were it not for the fact she witnessed all the murders. You see she has a psychic connection with the killer and when the murders are taking place, she sees through their eyes.

Tommy Lee Jones plays John Neville the investigating homicide detective assigned to her case. He begins the film not believing her but as the evidence builds that she is getting psychic visions they start working together to uncover the mystery. The suspects include her overbearing but somewhat camp manager Donald (Rene Auberjonois), her streetwise driver Tommy who harbours a criminal past (Brad Dourif), and her abusive ex-husband Michael (Raúl Juliá).

Despite the fact this isn't directed by Carpenter – it's directed by Irvin Kershner – it still very much feels like his work. Carpenter's scripts are all quite minimalist and efficient pieces and so is this. Much like Halloween, the film borrows heavily on the style of Italian giallo thrillers. The idea of seeing through the murderer's eyes but not revealing the identity was perhaps slightly more effective in Halloween.

The acting was pretty good. Other reviewers have noted that Dunaway plays the role quite one-noted. I can't say I've seen her in a lot of stuff before but I thought she played the role of a woman on the verge of mental breakdown pretty well. Considering they nearly cast Barbra Streisand in the lead I think we dodged a bullet. That said Streisand does sing the theme tune that goes over the opening and ending credits but you can fast forward through those.

It's interesting to see a younger less grizzled Tommy Lee Jones. Even at an early age he's perfectly suited to playing detective – over the years he's never been that versitile an actor but as soon as he starts talking in that Texan drawl you sit up an pay attention. The other standout is Brad Dourif in an early role as the shifty driver Tommy who imbues with character with a lot of pathos. Kershner's directing is slow and methodical but it gives the somewhat sillier moments of the film more weight than they deserve.

The ending is something of a love it or hate it affair. I'm not going to give it away but the killer's identity does get revealed along with a slightly iffy reason for their killings. Carpenter has gone on record to say that this wasn't in his original script, he deliberately wanted to keep the killer's identity mysterious (much like Michael Myers) in order to make them more scary.

For me, I was okay with the ending. I've seen worse but it made some sense I guess and didn't ruin the rest of the film. For anyone who enjoyed Halloween this is a decent (but obviously inferior) 70s thriller.

Its on Crackle