Customer Reviews:
 The fault lies not in our stars, but in our script November 26, 2009
Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth)
DIGIVIEW's slimline cased DVDs feature unrestored public domain films that have no subtitles or extras beyond plot synopses on their back covers. As with all such bargain brands, dubs are "best available source" and can vary from very good to only fair. Audio levels are however some of the highest you'll find, which makes these ideal for laptop PC or portable disc player watching.
Richard Manuel, keyboardist for The Band is typecast in ELIZA'S HOROSCOPE (1975) as a hippieish composer.
The main character is an eccentric 18-year-old girl with a troubled past who consults Rose Quong (same), an ancient Chinese astrologer living in a Montreal tenement building. While waiting for her predicted true love to appear, Eliza (Elizabeth Moorman) rooms temporarily in this same dank flop house with Lila (Lila Kedrova), a 50-ish former white-faced pantomimist.
One of their neighbors is the anarchistic Indian, Tommy Lee (Jones). When not walking construction girders or drinking with his buddies, Tommy plots to dynamite a nearby bridge as a form of Native protest. He's attracted to Eliza from first sight and she does sleep with him occasionally, but the girl has her heart set on marrying a wealthy man.
Through a variety of outlandish costume and make-up changes over the course of ten days, Eliza meets a number of well-off weirdos. One of her new friends is a home movie fanatic who owns a vulgar life-sized centaur statue. During another episode, she falls in with a creepy cult that combines baptism and devil worship with peyote-laced baccanalian orgies.
An odd editing technique is persistently used here. It's best described as 'visual yips'. Often insignificant moments repeat themselves like a cracked 78, even as the audio continues along smoothly. The end result is more annoying than artistic or disorienting. Most interesting is Elmo Peeler's bare bones music score, a gently melancholy soundtrack in this, his only motion picture.
Mysticism practitioners, entrenched and/or latter-day hippies, plus fans of nearly unfathomable cinematic symbolism will find much to like within Canadian-made "Eliza's Horoscope." For the rest of us however this one's slow going at best. Try seeing it in a non-sober state.
The fault lies not in our stars, but in our script November 26, 2009
Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth)
Richard Manuel, keyboardist for The Band is typecast in ELIZA'S HOROSCOPE (1975) as a hippieish composer.
The main character is an eccentric 18-year-old girl with a troubled past who consults Rose Quong (same), an ancient Chinese astrologer living in a Montreal tenement building. While waiting for her predicted true love to appear, Eliza (Elizabeth Moorman) rooms temporarily in this same dank flop house with Lila (Lila Kedrova), a 50-ish former white-faced pantomimist.
One of their neighbors is the anarchistic Indian, Tommy Lee (Jones). When not walking construction girders or drinking with his buddies, Tommy plots to dynamite a nearby bridge as a form of Native protest. He's attracted to Eliza from first sight and she does sleep with him occasionally, but the girl has her heart set on marrying a wealthy man.
Through a variety of outlandish costume and make-up changes over the course of ten days, Eliza meets a number of well-off weirdos. One of her new friends is a home movie fanatic who owns a vulgar life-sized centaur statue. During another episode, she falls in with a creepy cult that combines baptism and devil worship with peyote-laced baccanalian orgies.
An odd editing technique is persistently used here. It's best described as 'visual yips'. Often insignificant moments repeat themselves like a cracked 78, even as the audio continues along smoothly. The end result is more annoying than artistic or disorienting. Most interesting is Elmo Peeler's bare bones music score, a gently melancholy soundtrack in this, his only motion picture.
Mysticism practitioners, entrenched and/or latter-day hippies, plus fans of nearly unfathomable cinematic symbolism will find much to like within Canadian-made "Eliza's Horoscope." For the rest of us however this one's slow going at best. Try seeing it in a non-sober state.
The fault lies not in our stars, but in our script November 26, 2009
Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth)
Richard Manuel, keyboardist for The Band is typecast in ELIZA'S HOROSCOPE (1975) as a hippieish composer.
The main character is an eccentric 18-year-old girl with a troubled past who consults Rose Quong (same), an ancient Chinese astrologer living in a Montreal tenement building. While waiting for her predicted true love to appear, Eliza (Elizabeth Moorman) rooms temporarily in this same dank flop house with Lila (Lila Kedrova), a 50-ish former white-faced pantomimist.
One of their neighbors is the anarchistic Indian, Tommy Lee (Jones). When not walking construction girders or drinking with his buddies, Tommy plots to dynamite a nearby bridge as a form of Native protest. He's attracted to Eliza from first sight and she does sleep with him occasionally, but the girl has her heart set on marrying a wealthy man.
Through a variety of outlandish costume and make-up changes over the course of ten days, Eliza meets a number of well-off weirdos. One of her new friends is a home movie fanatic who owns a vulgar life-sized centaur statue. During another episode, she falls in with a creepy cult that combines baptism and devil worship with peyote-laced baccanalian orgies.
An odd editing technique is persistently used here. It's best described as 'visual yips'. Often insignificant moments repeat themselves like a cracked 78, even as the audio continues along smoothly. The end result is more annoying than artistic or disorienting. Most interesting is Elmo Peeler's bare bones music score, a gently melancholy soundtrack in this, his only motion picture.
Mysticism practitioners, entrenched and/or latter-day hippies, plus fans of nearly unfathomable cinematic symbolism will find much to like within Canadian-made "Eliza's Horoscope." For the rest of us however this one's slow going at best. Try seeing it in a non-sober state.
 A Touch of Fantacy September 14, 2009
Alyson Montemagno (Hawaii)
I have to agree, with most of the other's users comments. It was a bit confusing, and it helped reading their comments. I personally, as you can see, from what I usually buy, dramas, cerebral movies, was kind of lost with this one. I know this isn't much of a review, but it was great seeing a very young Tommy Lee Jones
I know this doesn't have anything to do with this movie, but for fantasy, I really enjoyed "Skellig" which was actually a children's book and then movie. The actor who portrayed "Skellig", Tim Roth was excellent.
Eliza's Horoscope has to do with Indian culture, mysticism (which I usually enjoy) and death. All in all, I was a bit lost.
 A Mess - and a waste of Tommy Lee Jones November 25, 2007
Salome
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
"Eliza" moves to town while she looks for her true love as foretold in her horoscope. She meets a series of weirdos and outcasts residing in her apartment building, including Tommy Lee Jones' character, a disgruntled American Indian intent on destroying a bridge as a strike against the government. Eliza's only goal in life (and the main focus of this film)is to find her one true love; she practically stumbles over Jones whom she befriends, not realizing she's found her soul mate... Well, the hook sounds marginally better than what ends up on film.
This film is EXCRUCIATING in its attempt to be artsy - too many closeups of leering faces, abrupt laughter, and people prancing in and out of frame; it's lack of plot is downright nonsensical to the point of ridiculous while we keep wondering when an actual storyline will unfold. (Don't hold your breath.) No wonder Eliza doesn't realize who her true love is, her character embodies the mindlessness of this film; it's a wonder she can even find her way home after the end of a long day of "searching". The sound quality is poor, but the film suffers from a lack of intelligent dialogue anyway, so you won't miss much. Jones can't save this sad mess - This film fell into obscurity for good reason. Give it a miss -
If you want decent early Tommy Lee Jones fare, try "Jackson County Jail," "Back Roads" (with Sally Fields) or "The Eyes of Lara Mars" (with Faye Dunaway). Like many 1970s films, these movie styles are also dated, but Jones' talent shines through in them without the burden of wading through creative flotsam and jetsom masquerading as an art film one finds in "Eliza's Horoscope" .
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