Christina Reviews *Eye For An Eye*

          The McCann family are getting ready for little Megan McCann's sixth birthday.  Megan's older sister Julie is alone in the house, preparing for the party, when her mother calls home.  While the two are talking on the phone, there's a knock on the door.  Julie goes to answer it, and is immediately attacked by a strange man.  Her mother hears everything and tries to get help.  But she's too late.  When the police arrive on the scene, they find that Julie has been raped and bludgeoned to death with an ice sculpture.

          Karen McCann (Sally Field) is, understandably, devastated.  Her husband (Ed Harris) and younger daughter Megan (Alexandra Kyle) are doing their best to move on.  But Karen can not rest until her daughter's killer is brought to justice.   She goes to a victims' support group, but being surrounded by other grieving families only stokes the flames of the fire within her.

        The murderer (Kiefer Sutherland) is eventually caught, but is then released on a technicality.  Karen decides that, since she can't rely on the courts for justice, she will need to take matters into her own hands.  She starts by stalking him, but soon decides that stalking him is not enough.  He cannot be trusted to live amongst good, honest people like herself and her family.  He must die.   

          This movie reminds me of the kind of story you'd see on the Lifetime channel.  I will admit that it is a very emotional tale, and you can't help but root for the villain's demise.  I am not for vigilante justice, but Sutherland's character was absolutely loathsome.  Obviously.  And he didn't really leave Karen McCann much choice.

         I also liked the fact that the murdered daughter had a speech impediment.  It made her seem more real.  It was such an endearing trait that it made me feel so much worse when she died, if that's even possible.   It made me think that sometimes it's the imperfections that you miss the most when a person is gone, not the angelic qualities. 
     
        And the ending reminded me a lot of Enough starring J. Lo.  Of course, Eye For An Eye came first.  And I think that the latter is better.  The ending is kind of contrived and seems somewhat unrealistic.  But it's satisfying.  McCann is able to have her cake and eat it too.  It may not be the barbie cake they were all hoping to eat for Megan's birthday, but it's the best cake they'll ever taste again in this dark, new world in which they now live.