Blindness (2008) Horror Movie Review
by Lois Watson
(Louisville, KY)
**Reader Submitted Review**
***Warning! Contains Spoilers***
Release: October 2, 2008 (U.S.)
Directed by: Fernando Meirelles
Written by: José Saramago - (novel "Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira") and Don McKellar (screenplay)
Starring:
Julianne Moore as Doctor's Wife
Mark Ruffalo as Doctor
Alice Braga as Woman with the Dark Glasses
Yusuke Iseya as First Blind Man
Yoshino Kimura as First Blind Man's Wife
Recently I found my Netflix account on temporary hiatus, due to insufficient funds. On a Friday night after working a typical nine hour shift I decided to check out The Redbox at the gas station next door to my work. It was freezing cold and I just wanted to get lucky enough to find something worthy on the front page. I stumbled across a movie titled Blindness. The plot summary sounded interesting, but with Mark Ruffalo, Julianne Moore, and Danny Glover listed as actors I had my doubts. Nonetheless, the cold pushed me to take my chances. I'm VERY glad that I did.
Blindness opens with a young Asian man stopped at a red light on a very busy city street (the movie never quite explained where it took place, but the bustling and sunshine puts me to mind of Los Angeles). Just as the light turns green he blinks and starts to rub his eyes. Of course the travelers behind him are very irritated and an episode bordering on road rage occurs. Two pedestrians take notice and rush over to the car. After a quick explanation, both the viewer and the men find out that the man had suddenly went blind, but not in the traditional sense. Instead of everything going dark it went white. One of the men offers to take him home and we find out upon the return of the Asian man's wife that the man who brought him home had stolen their car. They take a taxi to an ophthalmologist office and things really get going after that. The movie takes us through several different scenarios of other people going blind in the same way.
The government, upon learning of this outbreak decides to collect these people from their homes and take them to what looks to be some sort of abandoned warehouse for quarantine. The ophthalmologist is the second person affected by the blindness, but it has not affected his wife. She decides to fake blindness in order to be with her husband. When they arrive, She scouts the place out and realizes there are three "wards". The blind people are left to their own devices inside.
It doesn't take long for the wards to fill up and for the viewer to realize that the seeing wife is a godsend for her ward. With inadequate water or food rationing the wards take on a life of their own. Ward three is filled with what may be assumed as con artists and bad asses quickly takes over the food and demands payments in the form of personal belongings and sex (brutal sex might I add) in order for the other two wards to eat. They make it work, because they have guns. From this point on it becomes a race to see how far someone will go in such horrifying conditions just to survive.
A retaliation fire is set causing the whole warehouse to catch a blaze. Fumbling outside in hopes that a guard would take notice and rescue the survivors, the seeing woman realizes there are no longer any guards and they are free. The outside world has been ravaged by the outbreak and it looks a bit like a war zone. The patrons of ward one stick together to find food and shelter until they can make it back to the home of the doctor and his wife. It is implied that the only person with sight in the entire city is the doctor's wife.
They make it back to their home and all seems well. The Asian man from the beginning of the film regains his sight over a cup of coffee. This is how the film ends.
I realize to some this movie will not be considered a horror movie. At fist glance it truly isn't, but after putting myself in the same situation it scared me more than any movie that has been labeled horror over the past 5 or 6 years. You kinda have to ask yourself... "what if?"
