As I watched it, half an hour in I realized why I never heard of it...the storyline is all over the place, and the character motivations make zero sense. I have no problem with a janitor being the lead character, but his occupation isn't his life, even though the film keeps hitting us over the head with it. A fired James Woods begs for his job back, aren't there like a million janitor jobs out there? Sigourney Weaver isn't given much to work with, her character is either very bright or very dumb, though the film continuously implies the latter. The thing with the dog was confusing, weird, and pointless, perhaps a metaphor for the film as a whole. I sometimes get a kick out of seeing actors who reunite in other films, and here we see James Woods and Steven Hill, who were both in The Boost, a much more fascinating 1980s film.

William Hurt, as the janitor, knows what's going on, and he loves reporter Sigourney Weaver, the daughter of immigrants who are involved in getting out Jews from the Soviet Union.

The problem with this film is that the plight of Soviet Jews is stated but once in a sentence or so. It's because of these people that we had such a story to begin with and we could have seen the victims in relation to the murder. In other words, we needed a script conference here to do some real rewriting, or shall we say editing.

Christopher Plummer plays his villain part with relish, but he too is given little to work with. Irene Worth is wasted as Sigourney's mother, up to her neck in intrigue insofar as rescuing the Jewish people. James Woods, as young as ever here, is also wasted as the janitor-friend suspected in the killings.

EYEWITNESS turns out to be a shockingly bad thriller in the sub Hitchcock mould. Incredible to think that director Peter Yates once made films of the calibre of BULLITT. Everything seems misconstrued here and everything rings hollow; literally the only reasons to tune in are Sigourney Weaver and Christopher Plummer, both the professionals that they are, but the rest is awful. William Hurt's sleazy janitor hero actively stalks and coerces Weaver into bed, but somehow seems to be commended for it, and the writer based it on his own behaviour - how did this pass?! Every foreigner is a villain of some colour and it's all confused, muddled, pointless. As for that cut price BEN HUR ending, well, what were they thinking?