Blindness (2008)

Powerful

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Good actors, dull movie. It starts off interesting and decays into a dull morbid, depressing and unrealistic B movie. Makes about as much sense as "Killer Clowns From Outer Space", at least that had some humor in it. It's "Lord of the Flies" goes blind. And it doesn't get a sight better.

Blindness (2008), directed by Fernando Meirelles, is an adaptation of José Saramago's novel Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira that tells the story of a society that falls victim to a sudden surge of blindness. The film is an extraordinary adaptation. It pictures a lot of the details of the book, such as places and scenes that are fundamental to the plot.The where and when the story happens is not mentioned and to express this idea in the film the director made a great choice by mixing elements of various nationalities. The language used is English, but the license plates look similar to Brazilian plates, the images of the city are taken from cities from different countries and the cast is really diverse. Also, none of the characters has a name, and fortunately this wasn't modified in the movie. As a great fan of the novel, these were the first details that I was expecting to see because they create the perfect atmosphere to the plot. Speaking of plot, just a few things were changed and it didn't bring any harm to the original story. While I was watching, I started to remember certain scenes from the novel and I was trying to imagine how these scenes would be portrayed in the film. I wasn't disappointed at all. Of course some parts were left out, but it wasn't a great loss, they were well adapted to be shorter than the novel. I've seen some negative reviews talking about how the film can cause a bad feeling to the audience, but I can't see how this is a bad thing, because that is exactly the purpose of the whole story. It is to cause discomfort, to show the reality we could live. The graphic scenes can be too strong to the more sensitive but they were unavoidable. All I can say is that Blindness is a well made adaptation that doesn't disappoint those who read the novel. The direction is brilliant, the actors are great and the story is told in full. Even if you didn't read the novel, it is a great way to meet José Saramago's brilliant work.

*Disclaimer*I have read the book before watching the movie, but not completely. So if you are trying to find a review for which the reviewer has not read the book, you were close. Also spoilers.The first thing which struck me when watching the movie was the ethnicity of the first character introduced. My reason for this is the fact that the book made no mention of the man's ethnicity in the book, so the choice is something which I am questioning. Not to say that he was a bad actor, but I do wonder the reasons for the choice.The world was very grey and bland. Even before the blindness struck the city, the sky was grey and everyone was wearing grey or dark colors. Although it fit with what I imagined beforehand going into the movie, I was taken aback by exactly how much grey I was presented with within the first 20 minutes. The plot was consistent and linear, with some scenes questionable, and it is clear within the first minutes of the movie the type of statement it is trying to make. The problem however, is the feeling of emptiness I got the more the movie progressed. Not a feeling of sadness mind you, as I found myself not connecting with the characters in the least, but the feeling that the director for the movie was just as blind in what he wished to portray as the characters in the movie. I got the feeling that it wished to tell a story of dehumanization and disease, but refused to delve deeper into social commentary and felt stunted when watched.Few scenes stuck to me when watching this movie, with only two of them being intentional. The first was the roughly 5 second part played by Sandra Oh from Grey's Anatomy. The second part of the movie which stuck to me was the grossness of the asylum to which they are confined. Fake poop everywhere, trash littering the hallways, layers of grime covering both the people and the walls, all contributed to my feeling of sickness when watching. Although some might say that the director went overboard, I commend him for really immersing me in the setting during the period of the asylum. The only two scenes that was intentional and not just my reaction was the scene of the man and scene of the radio. The part of the "man" which I reference is the part where we see a naked man walking down a road, naked and sunburned, lost. I loved the position of the camera, I loved it all. The other scene, the radio, was more heart-warming. The blind staying still, not making a sound but aware of everyone around them, while music which they have not heard in ages reminds them of the outer world which they are restricted from contaminating.Other than that, I found the movie to be very average. I would like the say "the book was better" but I have not finished the book so I will just keep my mouth shut.

Based on a popular novel by the Portuguese Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago, Blindness (2008) is a dystopian tale of survival in the face of a pandemic.Blindness opens with an affluent Japanese businessman suddenly blocking traffic during rush hour. Inexplicably blinded, he is unable to continue driving and a seemingly good Samaritan offers to help him. When they arrive at the Japanese man's upscale apartment, however, the "good Samaritan" steals his car and escapes. Soon the entire city is overtaken by a pandemic of "white blindness", like driving in a snow storm. The pandemic becomes global. Read the entire review at: www.unhealedwound.com