I might not have 20/20 vision, but I know a bad movie when I see one. Blindness was not just a bad film, it was a horrid one. In fact, I would argue that it is one of the worst movies made in a long time.
The plot of Blindness is, without a doubt, one of the most disturbing and twisted stories ever concocted. None of the characters are given names, which immediately dehumanizes them. As the story goes, blindness becomes a contagious disease, and those who go blind begin to cause travesties all over the world. The epidemic reaches global proportions, and the blind are horded into disgusting, non-habitable quarantine units. The blind are the only ones living within the units and cannot function in their new environment, having only recently lost all sight. Mark Ruffalo plays a doctor who goes blind and is placed in one of these units. His wife (Julianne Moore) risks her life to sneak in and live alongside him. Her sight remains intact throughout the film, and she must witness the horrible events that take place in this new, hellish society.
The real reasoning behind the disgust I have for this movie is the basis of the film. The people have gone blind and cannot deal with the new disease. They have trouble moving around, eating, cleaning themselves, etc. While the novel that this film is adapted from presents blindness as a metaphor, this film seems to present it in a mocking sense, as if to point out that blind people are lesser human beings, or infantile animals of sorts.
While Julianne Moore is a respectable actress, she did not meet par in her performance, only delivering in two brief scenes. Mark Ruffalo, on the other hand, had no redeeming qualities in his acting. He failed to deliver at all, because he was not believably blind. And he especially gave into the dehumanizing stereotype the film seemed to portray. Danny Glover wasn't given enough screen time to do anything memorable. Glover, a legendary actor with immense credit to his name, was wasted in a bit part.
In terms of aesthetics, the film is bleak. The dominant colors in the cinematography are black, white, gray, and shades of blue. This creates a very somber and dismal tone, which marries the film's subject matter well. The part that alienates audience members, however, is the weird camera angles that were chosen, which allow the audience to see through the eyes of a blind person. So viewers see blurry objects, all black, or intense light with no distinguishable images. The chosen shots along with the bleak color have obvious intentions to be meaningful and impacting, but it comes across as nauseating.
Blindness is a depressing, disorienting, and disturbing film. I hope to blind it from my memory, and do not wish it upon anyone else to sit through such a horrific film.
D
2008 Woodie Awards
