'The Eye'

Rating:

BY JAN STUART | jan.stuart@newsday.com

8:11 PM EST, February 1, 2008

In the preposterous, ripped-off-from-another-hit-Asian-thriller "The Eye," a blind concert violinist has an eye operation and starts seeing all sorts of things she never signed on for. Bald phantoms snarl in the street, dead guys with chewed-off faces dangle in the elevator, and apparitions of burning people flail about her living room.

What's preposterous in all this is the notion that Jessica Alba, the film's distressed star, would play the violin. Making oneself invisible, which she does so instinctively in "Fantastic Four" and every other movie in which she appears, is one thing. But taking on a super power that requires soul and artistry is really stretching it.

If anyone could make a delusional cornea transplant patient unsympathetic, it's Alba, a vapid beauty with a singular gift for making bad acting look effortless. What the movie really wants is someone with the personality quirks to make a dopey script look credible.

As celebrated violinist Sydney Wells, Alba is required to look anxious, stir up scenes in public places and squawk, "I see the shadows, they're everywhere!" She gets to enjoy the company of two actors who, by contrast, are far superior to their material, Alessandro Nivola and Parker Posey. One hopes they both got fat paychecks.

Nivola plays Dr. Paul Faulkner, the handsome but incredulous eye specialist who thinks Sydney is merely having a rough transition period into the world of the seeing. Faulkner comes around to Sydney's point of view before the nick-of-time climax, for reasons not automatically evident in Sebastian Gutierrez's screenplay. Posey marks time as Helen, Sydney's perversely dedicated sister. Helen demonstrates her sisterly love by throwing the disoriented Sydney a noisy surprise party immediately upon being released from the hospital after life-changing surgery.

Aside from Posey and Nivola, Alba also benefits from the attention of her two directors, David Moreau and Xavier Palud, which breaks down to one for each eye. The most frightening aspect of this supernatural horror film -- a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong thriller -- is that there was a 114- minute version, before someone took pity and snipped it down to a lugubrious 97.

THE EYE (PG-13) Jessica Alba sees dead people everywhere she goes. (That's the plot, not a punch line). The Hong Kong version was far more compelling. Surprise! Directed by David Moreau, Xavier Palud. Screenplay by Sebastian Gutierrez. With Alessandro Nivola, Parker Posey, Rade Serbedzija, Fernanda Romero. 1:37 (violence/terror and disturbing content). At area theaters.