Much like the movie as a whole; I had and still am having trouble trying to take it seriously in any way whatsoever. Even in its promising scenes, which mainly are the ones involving crime, there is always an element of disbelief involved. The film goes from silly plot point to silly plot point, with some clichéd and predictable twists in the story and an ending that not only feels unsatisfying from the standpoint of this woman’s tale for revenge but it ends in a way I can’t stand — tied up with a nice big bow on top, leaving the viewer with nothing to think about even just moments after the credits roll.

The film’s main problem, however, isn’t in its silliness (although that does play a significant part in its failure) but how obvious it showcases all of its elements. Field’s character is a caring person who loves her family and would only hurt something if there’s a reason (like, say, they brutally kill her daughter). How do we know this? Well, in one of the film’s earliest scenes she opts to let a moth fly out of the window instead of killing it. The killer character, played by Keifer Sutherland, is a bad man. Why? Well, not only does he kill people, which is of course a fair reason for someone to be labeled “bad", but he has lots of tattoos, pours a hot cup of coffee on a dog, and speaks in that gruff, kind-of-but-not-really intimidating voice. The character looks and acts too much like you would expect a character like that to act for you to take him seriously in any way, let alone be scary. Ed Harris is totally wasted as Field’s husband, and I never thought I’d ever speak even remotely negatively about that actor, as are Phillip Baker Hall and Keith David, two legends of the field who are frankly better than the material they’ve been given. The entire cast feels that way; everyone involved is bigger and better than this.

The film isn’t a complete disaster, despite what the above might make it sound like. Director John Schlesinger manages to conjure some (in)tense moments here and there, most notably the opening rape/murder which is shown in quite blatant detail, but this does very little to make up for what is obviously wrong with the film. You see films like this all the time and Eye for an Eye does nothing different to make it any more, or any less, worth checking out.