Blindness

Blindness is a good movie. Stopping short of great, it's a mostly fascinating allegory of human nature at it's most desparaging
when chaos erupts and people are confronted with the unexplainable. Just don't call it entertaining, for those coming to see this wanting all their answers solved are in for a doozy. The Film is an intellectual exercise, one that confronts the viewer and puts them right where the characters are: A world falling apart.

Along with Children of Men, and to a lesser extent, 28 Days Later, Blindness can be considered part of the new sub genre dubbed "Apocalypse Porn". It's neither a thriller nor is it an action film, which makes it harder to categorize.

Blindness's premise is simple: In an unspecified city, people a blind epidemic starts to occur. Stripped of their sight with an unresponsive government at hand, chaos erupts and the bleakness takes over. Fernando Meirelles, whom directed the excellent City of God, is less interested in the Psycological aspects of blindness (the movie just begins when the first person is infected and doesn't explain anything) than the despair it brings to a group of people. This is something the Director, a native of Sao Paulo, understands all too well. The movie's subject matter offers endless visual possibilities, and this, along with is talented DP César Charlone, device a visual device as bold as the storytelling. White is the dominant color, and is effectively used as a framing device to transport the narrative.

Julianne Moore (em, Children Of Men) is the only person who can see among the blind, and along with her Doctor Husband (and delegating Mark Ruffalo) is forced to survive in situations that are harrowing beyond belief. The government, in fear of the escalating chaos with no answers to solve it, takes a group of the infected and hauls them together to fend off for themselves. Power plays ensure, as the screws of survival tighten and despair takes it's hold. These sequences are among the most harrowing seen in a recent movie, as the blind cope with the relentless abuse of power by another sector who use fear and intimidation as a dominating tactic. Allusions to the real world are not coincidental. This material is what's polarizing viewers and clueless reviewers whom don't like their cage shaken. The movie's centerpiece, where the woman are forced to make the ultimate sacrifice for survival, and men put them there. This scene really pissed off my partner, whom as a woman has every right to a perspective man don't share. The scene shows human nature at it's most primal, and how men force woman into making sacrifices by the use of fear and abuse to dominate others.

To put this scene into real life perspective, one must understand it's implications. In her own words:


They (the men) chose to let the women save their asses with the cost that outstrips any reasonable explanation. and men always do that!!! not just in the movie, but in the real life and that's what pisses me off. Men always let women sacrifice the most. and even in that situation, man still finds time to turn around and cheat on somebody who's the only person there for him. Once you see the scene you'll understand what this means.

I suspect the removal of a reportedly incessant voiceover (Danny Glover, in eyepatch) pulls the rug under the viewer even more, adding to the unpleasantness. The third act of the film is so bleak and heavy that the movie barely recovers by the time the optimistic resolution comes. This, along with the music and a few pacing issues, detract an A movie to a B rating.

Regardless of the uneveness, it's a powerful film about the effects of humanity responding in the urge of a crisis no one can see. Being stripped away from our vision also strips us of our senses as we confront survival, according to the film's material.

Blindness is engaging and intelligent enough to provoke some hard reactions and frustration. See it with your eyes wide open, no pun intended.

Trailer: