Blindness [2008]

There’s a lot of discussion about this movie, but I personally found it very watchable. The story is a bit slow paced, but that’s just fine. We are dealing with blindness, so it is expected that this is not some action flick. Based on a novel written by José Saramago, Blindness is a strange movie. Bleak and depressing, this is basically a post-apocalyptic story with a twist. However, there’s just too many experiments with cinematography and storytelling for this thing to work. We could say that Fernando Meirelles “bit off more than he could chew”, but at least he took a fucking bite. Especially in the middle of the movie.

It started happening suddenly and before they could realize what was going on, people started dying in car crashes and other accidents. They are suddenly losing their ability to see, and this is suspected to be caused by an unknown virus. Soon, they are placed into a quarantine, where they form a community, but as always human nature will not show signs of humanity. Julianne Moore was fantastic here and I think without her committed performance, this movie would be much duller. Just like in The Forgotten. Another study of human behavior in some extreme situations where our animalistic urges kick in, and very few are able to conserve their dignity. There are a few disturbing scenes, nothing that you can’t handle. Most of the people are confronted with some very tough decisions.

Director: Fernando Meirelles

Cast: Danny Glover, Mark Ruffalo, Julianne Moore, Gael García Bernal, Joseph Motiki,Alice Braga

Fun Facts: To prepare for the film, the actors, extras and crew participated in “blind camps.” They were blindfolded, taken in a car to an unknown location, and left in the middle of the street. However, there were always somebody there to guide them. Despite this, the director claimed that someone would always breakdown.

Rating:

IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0861689/