Film Review – Blindness

“Blindness” is not a happy movie, in fact, it’s kind of scary. Not only does the film depict an epidemic of a contagious illness rendering people blind, but it also depicts the worst of humanity and not in an outlandish way, it’s very, very realistic (which is the scary part). Danny Glover, Mark Ruffalo, Julianne Moore, Alice Braga, Gael García Bernal, Sandra Oh amongst others make up this ensemble piece about a group of afflicted individuals quarantined in an abandoned mental hospital where literally the blind lead the blind – except for one - a Doctor’s wife - who keeps her ability to still see a secret. After watching “Blindness” I just hope that something like this never actually happens, because it won’t be pretty.

Pros:
- Amazing Acting – I love it when actors make an audience hate them, love them, feel sympathy for them, because that’s a sign that they are really great! The actors of “Blindness” brought me into their … well ... situation I guess, so much so that I couldn’t just sit back and passively watch this movie - I was involved.

- Unique Story – There is definitely a portfolio of disease infecting society movies out there, but “Blindness” is different. No one actually dies from the illness that’s causing them white blindness. And it’s rare to have a movie of this genre continue as if there is hope to have a semi regular life after the disease (whether they are blind or not). In this movie, the illness doesn’t equal certain death or life as a zombie.



- The Pacing – The story progresses nicely – we learn about the illness and the reaction to it at the same time as the people and government in the movie learn about it. It’s paced so that the decline of society and the feeling of desperation is believable – we aren’t just thrown into chaos and expected to buy it.

Cons:
- Not Happy Times – There are about 15 minutes of this movie that are happy. I could have used a little more.

- It’s Scary! – I’m a little afraid that something like this could happen and seeing the way people changed and the awful things they did in the movie – I just wouldn’t want that to happen to anyone.



Summary:
“Blindness” is a good movie in the areas of acting and story, but you won’t be smiling when the credits start to roll. I think I just stared at the credits for a while and eventually I blindly turned off the TV.

"Basically, I'm for anything that gets you through the night - be it prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniels.” – Frank Sinatra
So may the prayers, tranquilizers and JD be with you and see you next time.
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