Movie Review - Blindness (2008)

***Available on DVD***
Starting Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Danny Glover
Written by Don McKellar
Directed by Fernando Meirelles

I honestly didn't even think about my recent health "scare" prior to watching this one. Nothing like watching a movie about going blind a month after you quasi-experienced that for yourself.

This film was slightly trashed by the critics when it was released last year and, after watching it, I have no idea why. It was a smart little movie, and while it's not without its flaws (for sure), it certainly deserved a better reception than what it got.

A sudden epidemic of blindness has struck an unnamed city (or the world? We never really find that out). Initially, all the blind are herded into an old insane asylum where they are essentially forced to fend for themselves. Julianne Moore is The Doctor's Wife (no one has names in this film) and she has followed her husband (Ruffalo) into the asylum even though she is
still able to see. While The Doctor attempts to set up a "democracy" amongst the blind people in the ward, The Bartender (Bernal) has different plans and pronounces himself The King with everyone needing to do his will in order to get food. The film essentially sets up a little microcosm of the outside world inside the asylum -- displaying different types of government and trying to determine which kind works best for society as a whole (sort of...no need to go digging deep into what the flick is about at this point).

My main issue with the film is that The Doctor's Wife can see and she never uses that to her advantage until well into the film. There are scenes of horrible violence amongst the blind folks in the ward, but The Doctor's Wife never really acts to stop anything. She does eventually, but it almost seems too late. With The Doctor's Wife seemingly being "us" (or, at the very least, what we should aspire to be) in this allegorical tale, you never really got a sense how we (being a "blind" society) are supposed to act against our oppressors (it's all a crock, I know, but that's the film is saying...Act up and fight for what you believe in and don't blindly follow your leaders if you know they're doing wrong. Normally I hate message movies like this, but it worked here for some reason). Additionally, Danny Glover's character (Man with Eye Patch) is godawful. I don't know what he was supposed to be -- I'm sure he's a symbol for something -- but his lines in the movie were spoken like he was giving a speech. It didn't feel real in the slightest. There's one point where he's doing a voice-over narration that made me laugh out loud when I shouldn't have.

The film runs a little long, but it ends on a surprisingly different note than I thought which intrigued me to be sure. The flick is certainly not for everyone...there's not a lot of action...lots of talking...some very odd camera shots by the director...but if you're in the mood for an "interesting" movie, Blindness might fit that criteria.

The RyMickey Rating: B-