Blindness
From acclaimed director Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener) comes this extraordinarily intense and gritty thriller that will change your vision of the world forever. Led by a powerful all-star cast featuring Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Danny Glover, this unflinching story begins when a plague of blindness strikes and threatens all of humanity. One woman (Moore) feigns the illness to share an uncertain fate in quarantine, where society is breaking down as fast as their crumbling surroundings. Based on Nobel Prize-winning Jose Saramago's novel - let Blindness lead you on a journey where the only thing more terrifying than being blind is being the only one who can see.
Member Reviews
Not much to see - RobBC
Near-future story in which a sudden pandemic of blindness strikes a large city and begins to spread rapidly. As the growing number of afflicted are crowded into makeshift isolation camps, martial law begins to degenerate into the law of the jungle. It isn't long before the veneer of civilization begins to erode and what is left behind is unpleasant indeed. As usual, Julianne Moore gives a convincing performance with her softly nuanced voice and patrician features. But even her presence cannot make up for some of the more ludicrous elements of the film. The way in which the blind are herded into a dormitory that becomes a feces-smeared pigsty overnight is completely unrealistic as is the “Lord of the Flies” subplot which emerges. In addition, a tidy little "inspirational" ending is further marred by a somewhat condescending voiceover, as if we needed help interpreting the movie for ourselves. One could argue that the film is actually a metaphor examining the many prejudices that separate us, the way developed countries view the third world for instance. Its story of an apocalyptic event and the aftermath that follows could also be seen as any one of a number of catastrophes that threaten social order whether they be a natural disaster or global economic collapse. But, as the final credits roll, you realize that “Blindness” is little more than a mainstream thriller with a hollow core.Makes its point how important sight is! - sunita79
We often do take our senses for granted. And cannot realize how important each sense is....until we lose it.
This film was a cool concept, not just about if ONE person went blind but what if EVERYONE went blind. It seemed a bit far-fetched to imagine this concept of the whole town going blind, but I think it made it's point very well about how destructive and chaotic this world would be if everyone lost their site.
but on a more simple level, it shows how how stagnated one can be when they newly and forever lose their site. Very interesting concept to stretch it to the whole town.
I like Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore.As someone who read the book, - cathyottawa
I can report that this film actually follows it pretty closely, and it was almost exactly as I pictured it when I read it. I thought the "no names" thing would be tricky, but you don't even notice it.
It was a challenging novel, and this is a challenging film, simply because it's such a bleak story, giving us only small crumbs of relief from the relentless gloom.
This is the story of what happens when a sudden, unexpected, highly contagious virus that causes "white blindness" sweeps through, presumably, the entire country, and perhaps the world.
I say presumably because we never actually get the full story. We don't know what causes the virus. We don't see scientists working to find a cure, and there's no scenes at the White House, with the president making big decisions. This isn't that kind of disaster movie. If I were to compare it to anything, it'd be 28 Days Later.
I don't know why some reviewers find what happens far fetched. As the descriptor says, just look at what happened with hurricane Katrina and the Super Dome fiasco.
Not unlike a war film, or something on the Holocaust/concentration camps, this film is about loss of humanity; about what happens when one is robbed of all dignity; about what we are capable of when pushed to extremes, and what ugliness can emerge in people when society breaks down, and the will to survive is all you have left.
It's about the worst of us, and the best of us, as seen through the eyes of Julianne Moore, the one woman who is somehow immune, and can see all the horror.
If you haven't read the book, you might feel like the movie ends just when it should really be beginning (hence the complaints of a bad ending). But if you have read the book, and liked it, I can't imagine you'd be disappointed with this effort.
Member Reviews
Read All...
Not much to see - RobBC
Near-future story in which a sudden pandemic of blindness strikes a large city and begins to spread rapidly. As the growing number of afflicted are crowded into makeshift isolation camps, martial law begins to degenerate into the law of the jungle. It isn't ...Makes its point how important sight is! - sunita79
We often do take our senses for granted. And cannot realize how important each sense is....until we lose it.
This film was a cool concept, not just about if ONE person went blind but what if EVERYONE went blind. It seemed a bit far-fetched to imagine ...As someone who read the book, - cathyottawa
I can report that this film actually follows it pretty closely, and it was almost exactly as I pictured it when I read it. I thought the "no names" thing would be tricky, but you don't even notice it.
It was a challenging novel, and this is a challenging ...