Blindness (2008)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Fernando Meirelles

Writers:

José Saramago (novel)
Don McKellar (screenplay)

Release Date:

3 October 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Lust is blind.

Plot:

A city is ravaged by an epidemic of instant "white blindness". Those first afflicted are quarantined...

Plot Keywords:

Racial Comment | Cheating Husband | Discrimination | Fellatio | Racial Confusion

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Julianne Moore	...	Doctor's Wife
Mark Ruffalo	...	Doctor
Alice Braga	...	Woman with the Dark Glasses
Yusuke Iseya	...	First Blind Man
Yoshino Kimura	...	First Blind Man's Wife
Don McKellar	...	Thief
Jason Bermingham	...	Driver #1
Maury Chaykin	...	Accountant
Mitchell Nye	...	Boy
Eduardo Semerjian	...	Concerned Pedestrian #1
Danny Glover	...	Man with the Black Eye Patch
Gael García Bernal	...	Bartender / King of Ward Three
Joe Pingue	...	Taxi Driver
Susan Coyne	...	Receptionist
Fabiana Guglielmetti	...	Mother of the Boy (as Fabiana Gugli)

Also Known As:

Blindness (Japan: English title)
Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira (Brazil)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence including sexual assaults, language and sexuality/nudity.

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

Canada | Brazil | Japan

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Netherlands:16 | Brazil:16 | UK:18 | Canada:14A | Japan:PG-12 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Ireland:15A | Singapore:M18 | Portugal:M/16 | Germany:12 | Chile:14 | Argentina:16 | South Korea:18 | Finland:K-15

Filming Locations:

Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Rhombus Media

Trivia:

Book and script alike use the literal blinding of the characters as an allegory for human beings' innate moral blindness, the capacity for "prejudice, selfishness, violence and willful indifference" due to the inability to share another's point of view. The Doctor's Wife's empathy becomes important as the only sighted individual while conversely, the Doctor character loses his own false self-image with his vision.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the first blind man arrives home, he says he lives on the 14th floor. After his wife arrives you can see some trees through the kitchen window. Those trees should not be there.

Quotes:

[first lines]
First Blind Man: I'm blind.

Fair adaptation of a complex novel

"If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed", said the great Stanley Kubrick, who adapted most of his films from novels and turned them into his own films, rather than being too literal (or faithful, if you prefer) to the source material (and often turning authors and fans of the adapted novels crazy – Stephen King, anyone?). I agree with his statement. No literary work is "unfilmable" – which doesn't necessarily mean any literary work, good or bad, can be turned into a good movie. However, in spite of a few flaws, "Blindness" is a very efficient adaptation of a brilliant (and very complex) novel by Portuguese author José Saramago, "Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira" (literally, "Essay About Blindness"), and doesn't deserve all the bad reviews it's been getting.

The negative reaction towards the film doesn't surprise me at all, though. Fernando Meirelles, after getting world acclaim with his neoclassic "City of God", made a very successful transition to an international project with the beautiful "The Constant Gardener". His sophomore English project is very daring and dark, uneasy to watch at times, but also compelling and thought-provoking.

César Charlone's exquisite cinematography sets the tone for the story of an unexplained "white blindness" epidemic. It's also a huge asset to have such a phenomenal actress like Julianne Moore to play the film's heroine: as always, she has a strong presence and is extremely expressive, making everyone believe and feel for her character's cross of being the only one who can see in a chaotic quarantine, where people have to submit to violence and rape in order to survive.

My only major complaint is about the uneven first 20 minutes or so: some sequences seem a little disjointed and the acting somewhat amateurish, but once the first act is done the film finds its own pace and strength. Roger Ebert called it "one of the most unpleasant, not to say unendurable, films" he's ever seen. For a start, it would be stupid to assume a film with such a dark premise would be uplifting (and if Ebert had the slightest knowledge about the material it's based on, he'd realize what he was up for), so his comment is unintelligent and atrocious like the majority of everything he's ever written (but he's a widely popular Pulitzer-winning film critic, so unfortunately lots of people trust his opinion before going to see a movie). Even though I still prefer the outstanding novel to the film, I admire director Fernando Meirelles and writer Don McKellar's adaptation for what it is: smart, daring and respectful to its source material, without being overtly faithful or afraid of taking risks. And Saramago himself approved the film, so who are we to criticize? The man knows what he's talking about; if you want to see it for yourself, read his novel now and then compare it to this film, appreciating it not as a literary work, but as the good piece of cinema it is. 8/10.