Movie Review: Blindness

Director Fernando Meirelles' film Blindness has had a long struggle to come to the big screen. The rights for the book were hard to come by, then when they finally secured the rights, the film overspent its budget and ran overtime. However with a strong cast and director hopes were high and Oscar buzz was flying around. That is however until the film premiered on opening night at the Cannes film festival. It received mixed to negative reviews, shockingly. It seemed the consensus was Julianne Moore was good - and that was about it. After the disappointing premiere, the director re cut the movie, and the new version opened this past weekend.

I had been excited about Blindness ever since I heard about it. I am a huge Julianne Moore fan, and believe everything she does is golden. She has also been robbed from an Oscar so many times that I was hoping she would have another shot with this film. Plus the idea behind the film, that a sudden epidemic of blindness tears into the world is very intriguing. After a long wait, I finally got to see the film. I must say - don't believe the negative press: this is a great film. The look of it alone is breathtaking, and in many ways it succeeds in putting you in the mind of the characters as it is filmed as if you yourself could be slowly loosing your sight. Where to begin? The performances I suppose. Of course Julianne Moore is good. She's better than good. She's great. I don't know if this is as good as her performance in "Far From Heaven" but thats like comparing oranges and apples. She is astounding and I couldn't imagine anyone else playing the role. She is a doctors wife, who is unexplainable the only woman left who has her sight. She is thrust from housewife into leader role. From tepid housekeeper to brave soldier, and the transformation is exciting to watch. I was pleasantly surprised with Mark Ruffalo, who I have never been a fan of. As Julianne Moore's eye-doctor husband who goes blind, he is really terrific. The always hot Gael García Bernal plays a terrifying villian. But other than these three, no other characters are fleshed out. Danny Glover shows up as Man in the Black Eye Patch, and he does what he can with his limited role. Sandra Oh, who is featured in the trailer, honestly is onscreen for less than a minute. Her character seemed lost in the mist. I wonder why she was even included.

The story revolves around the first "victims" of the blindness epidemic being thrust into a holding camp - which goes from pristine hospital quality to an all out war zone. I won't go into detail because I don't want to ruin any of the surprises in the film. I didn't know where the story was going - and I think its best if you don't either.

The ending of the film left a little to be desired, however I don't know how you would end a film like this successfully. It has made me interested in reading the book, which I suppose any movie version should do. However, for the amazing performance by Julianne Moore, and the beautiful atmosphere of the film, you really shouldn't miss it.

***1/2 out of *****