MOVIE REVIEW : ‘White of the Eye’ Peers Inside Horror’s Disturbing Territories

Calling Donald Cammell’s “White of the Eye” (citywide)--which he co-wrote with his wife, China--a thriller is rather like saying that Van Gogh’s “The Potato Eaters” is a painting. Both descriptions are unquestionably correct and immeasurably insufficient.

Cammell, who co-directed the wildly original “Performance” in 1970 and the underrated science-fiction nightmare “Demon Seed” in 1977, is a talent drawn to genre . However, rather than work its conventions, he’s hell-bent to extend and contort its boundaries.

The wonder in his new film has almost nothing to do with such traditional niceties as “who did it.” (Even when that mystery is solved, many will initially refuse to recognize the air-tight veracity of the conclusion.)

Instead, we’re led into disturbing territory that wrestles with power, position, perception and sanity. Like some mad magician supremely adept at sleight of hand, Cammell ruthlessly uses his ability to divert our attention. He provides the momentary illusion of reason, only to follow with a rapid assault on our psychological comfort zone.

The plot is deceptively simple. In the quiet retreat of Globe, Ariz., there have been a series of ritualistic murder-dismemberments. The victims are wealthy, young women. Detective Mendoza (Art Evans), recruited from Tucson, selects Paul White (David Keith), a wizard at designing sound systems who has access to the area’s palatial homes, as the most likely culprit and proceeds to badger him.

The cat-and-mouse game--based upon circumstantial evidence and the cop’s proverbial gut instinct--is about status. Whether Paul is guilty is secondary. Mendoza’s purpose is a Kafka-esque reminder of the man’s station and to provide the threat of punishment should Paul stray outside that role.

The rest is a complex series of falling dominoes. With the cloud of suspicion hanging over him, Paul’s wife, Joan (Cathy Moriarty), finds herself questioning their relationship of the past 10 years. Suddenly, everything that seemed natural becomes a manipulation. She is tormented by the prospect that behind the facade of a loving husband and father dwells a deranged, homicidal mind.

The unsettling nature of the drama is complemented by a ferocious visual sensibility. The opening images, following a predatory eagle’s gyring path, contrast its facility for grace and lethal prowess. It’s an apt and disquieting metaphor. But nothing quite prepares us for the shock of viewing a victim, bound and unable to wrest herself free, forced to view her own last moments. It is a sequence of ultimate horror that will forever be etched in my memory.

“White of the Eye” (MPAA-rated: R for language and graphic violence) achieves its intention of shaking the dispassionate viewer from his complacent perch, and does so with surprising subtlety. Keith and Moriarty have never been as challenged or sympathetic on screen, and the story’s fierce logic proves seductive and overpowering.

In many ways the film is reminiscent of David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet,” itself an echo of “Performance.” However, Cammell’s film is the work of a more mature, assured talent. It is simply criminal that such craft and imagination should have been separated from an audience for a decade.

‘WHITE OF THE EYE’

A Palisades Entertainment presentation. Producers Cassian Elwes, Brad Wyman. Director Donald Cammell. Screenplay Donald and China Cammell. Camera Larry McConkey. Editor Terry Rawlings. Music Nick Mason, Rick Fenn. With David Keith, Cathy Moriarty, Alan Rosenberg, Art Evans, Alberta Watson.

Running time: 1 hour, 49 minutes.

MPAA-rated: R (younger than 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian).