Review - Blindness
April 16th 2009 14:15
Blindness, directed by Fernando Meireilles, is based on a novel written by Nobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago about an epidemic of instant "white blindness".
One by one inhabitants are struck down with blindness and the government in charge tosses them into a detention centre leaving them to literally fend for themselves.
Mark Ruffalo plays the eye doctor who comes into contact with the first victim and ends up contracting the disease himself. He in turn is thrown into the asylum with those first infected. His wife (Julianne Moore) inexplicably does not contract the disease although feigns illness so that she can remain by her husband's side. The doctor's relationship with his wife is put under considerable strain as he cannot bear the fact that his wife has to care for him.
Chaos ensues both inside and out of the detention centre. No one is able to assist those within the centre and any attempt to contact those outside - namely the guards - is met with threats of instant death.
This is ultimately a film about survival. Natural leaders emerge (both good and bad) in times of chaos and Gael Garcia Bernal is the protagonist who threatens what little civilisation remains within the centre.
Moore is no stranger to dystopian landscapes having featured in Children of Men alongside Clive Owen (2006). There is no love lost between husband and wife as Ruffalo shows off his bad guy angst. It is good to see him getting some interesting roles other than the rom-coms like Rumor Has It and Just Like Heaven.
Alice Braga, like Moore, is also no stranger to society gone mad tales having starred in I Am Legend alongside Will Smith. Danny Glover and Sandra Oh have small roles in the piece although Danny acts as an unnecessary narrator throughout.
The middle of the film seemed to be more focussed and concentrated than the bookend sequences although overall I was left feeling quite disappointed.
Voyage Review: 3/5
Check out the preview below:
One by one inhabitants are struck down with blindness and the government in charge tosses them into a detention centre leaving them to literally fend for themselves.
Mark Ruffalo plays the eye doctor who comes into contact with the first victim and ends up contracting the disease himself. He in turn is thrown into the asylum with those first infected. His wife (Julianne Moore) inexplicably does not contract the disease although feigns illness so that she can remain by her husband's side. The doctor's relationship with his wife is put under considerable strain as he cannot bear the fact that his wife has to care for him.
Chaos ensues both inside and out of the detention centre. No one is able to assist those within the centre and any attempt to contact those outside - namely the guards - is met with threats of instant death.
This is ultimately a film about survival. Natural leaders emerge (both good and bad) in times of chaos and Gael Garcia Bernal is the protagonist who threatens what little civilisation remains within the centre.
Moore is no stranger to dystopian landscapes having featured in Children of Men alongside Clive Owen (2006). There is no love lost between husband and wife as Ruffalo shows off his bad guy angst. It is good to see him getting some interesting roles other than the rom-coms like Rumor Has It and Just Like Heaven.
Alice Braga, like Moore, is also no stranger to society gone mad tales having starred in I Am Legend alongside Will Smith. Danny Glover and Sandra Oh have small roles in the piece although Danny acts as an unnecessary narrator throughout.
The middle of the film seemed to be more focussed and concentrated than the bookend sequences although overall I was left feeling quite disappointed.
Voyage Review: 3/5
Check out the preview below:
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