You lucky sod.
I don’t even want to run your review. That’s how much I hate you for seeing this already.
But come on... in what world am I not interested in early word on the new film from the guy who made CITY OF GOD and THE CONSTANT GARDENER?
I’m intrigued by your chosen spy name. “Joel.” Very enigmatic. Thanks for the review, man. Nicely done.
Last night i went to an advanced screening of "Blindness" a new film by Fernando Meirelles, the director The Constant Gardener.
let me just warn the readers of spoilers in this review/synopsis.
ok. an announcement was made before the screening that this was a video presentation and not 35 mm but that did not really detract from the film. also, at one point there was stock footage instead of whatever they will use, but that too was a minor distraction. otherwise, the production, music and everything else seemed to be close to a finished product.
the film opens immediately with a single man going inexplicably blind with no one really knowing or understanding why it has happened. he comes into contact with people (don mckellar) and his doctor (mark ruffalo) and the doctor's wife (julianne moore).
slowly but surely they too begin to go blind, as does the rest of the city, although no one has an exlpanation as to why it is happening. the nameless faceless government decides they don't want or can't deal with these people and puts them in an asylum to fend for themselves. julianne moore, who does not lose her sight, goes in with them to be with her husband but ends up taking care of them quite a bit.
we see the brutality of people trying to fend for themselves, and two camps forming in the asylum, the good side and evil side. it becomes a bit of a morality tale of good versus evil and what people can become when there are no laws or they are protected by "the invsibility that comes with blindness" as the movie states.
we don't get a sense of exactly how long they are in this asylum but it appears it is a long time. julianne moore eventually begins to fight back against the evil side (although give the fact she can see, it took her way too long to do this).
just to keep this synopsis shorter, eventually the asylum is abandened and they leave to an outside world that is in disaray, everyone is wondering around like blind zombies, hungry, stealing from each other. there is an element of 28 days later here where the streets are abandoned.
moore directs a small group of people (those she had been taking care of) back to her house which has been untouched.
the movie is drawing to a close, food is found and we see the first man that lost his sight to gain it back leaving us with the hope that others will also regain their site.
all in all, this was a very interesting movie. the colour scheme, production and location were all very beautiful. the film was shot in brazil and the interiors were shot in canada.
i think with some cutting the movie would be even better. danny glover plays one of the "inmates" as well and there is distracting voice over from his character that seems to begin in the middle of the movie for no particular reason.
julianne moore does a nice job of someone dealing with a situation she brought upon herself but can't control. it is a quiet subtle performance that works.
the movie also felt a little like babel or crash, where lives come together and cross paths in an otherwise big city where no one ever talks to each other.
there are a lot of other brutal twists and turns between the good inmates and bad but i'll leave those out of this review. i think this will play well in the art houses, not so much in the wide release but really quite interesting. my friend and i were talking about it the whole way home, which to me is a good sign.
i hope this was useful to you.
joel
