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There’s nothing like a national disability to bring out the worst in mankind. In director Fernando Meirelles’ “Blindness,” based on a book by Jose Saramago of the same name, we follow the events of a society as its citizens all fall into a “white sickness” that leaves its victims blind.
We come in at the peak of rush hour on the gridlocked city streets. Everybody is in his or her own compact space impatiently trying to move. The camera focuses in on a Japanese man (Yusuke Iseya) in his car. Suddenly, his eyes start to hurt and his vision bleaches out to milk white.
In reaction to his sudden blindness, he panics. His fear falls on deaf ears as all people around him do is honk their horns. Finally he is rescued by a man (Don McKellar) who takes him home, only to steal his car.
All the people the man comes into contact with after that find themselves going blind, from his wife (Yoshino Kimura) to the doctor (Mark Ruffalo) who examined him and all of the patients who sat with in the waiting room with him.
This sudden, mysterious “white sickness” rapidly spreads like wildfire. In response, the government begins an immediate quarantine of the victims. The entire city, and presumably the world, is on the verge of absolute blindness, save one woman, the doctor’s wife (Julianne Moore).
Everyday more and more people flood the quarantine prison and with lack of supplies, food and order, soon all falls into a nightmare of chaos and complete civil collapse.
Right away you may notice that none of the characters in this movie have a name. This is a difficult feature to accomplish successfully but “Blindness” does, very well. However, that’s probably the only thing done very well.
With Jose Saramago’s book in mind, this movie has a clear, and frequently stated, theme about society and how people respond to one another. Anybody who has seen the introduction to the 2004 movie “Crash” will see the similarities on the opening scenes.
The movie makes such a point to rub this theme into the audience’s face that it fails to put that same attention to the important things – like the plot. There are some definite slow points in the plot where it seems like the story hits a dragging point where it doesn’t seem to know where it’s going. This might have been an attempt to show the passage of time but all it does is slow the pace of an already aimless sequence.
“Blindness” is an even two hours and the majority of the timeline has the people watching things go from bad to worse. One of the biggest criticisms has been the insult to the blind community. In “Blindness” the loss of sight completely collapses society. Men are reduced to cavemen with primal, violent urges and common decency is thrown out the window.
Which leads to the distasteful reason this movie is rated R – the nudity. There are some films out there that gain a tremendous cinematic insight and deeper meaning with the execution of nudity. Then there are the films that are just looking for an excuse to get somebody naked. Shower scenes and random sex litter this film enough to question its taste and quality. There are other ways to show people resorting to primitive urges and falling out of civil behavior than putting them center focus on the big screen humping like excited pit-bulls.
It’s like the writer and the director didn’t communicate the message of the film. One portrays a deep, spiritual message about interaction amongst people and finding who you really are. The other is a bunch of smut you’d expect to find in the X-rated adult section of a dirty movie store.
There is a glimpse of hope in this opaque world. Moore demonstrates an amazing ability to lead the cast with her convincing acting skill and chiseled body language. Audiences will follow her as she plays the dutiful wife when her husband falls blind and when she becomes the fearless leader and takes matters into her own hands.
I expected more from “Blindness.” The suspenseful trailer intrigued me and the thought of banding together to survive an unknown catastrophe gave this film high hopes. Then I saw it. There are some rated R films I’d consider letting preteens see; this is absolutely not one of them. Rated R for violence including sexual assaults, language and sexuality/nudity, “Blindness” opens in theaters Friday, Oct. 4.
There are too many unanswered questions and too profound a lack of common sense in this movie to enjoy it. Unless the “white sickness” was a virus that messed with the brain and made people go crazy, this movie is an over-denazification of reality to prove a moral point. Anybody is going to be able to see this film is busting with issues. Just becasue the characters may all be going blind, it doesn’t mean the audience is, too.
