Check Out the Trailer

Ever since it opened the Cannes Film Festival, Fernando Meirelles’ BLINDNESS has been getting love it or hate it reviews. The premise has the world going blind and the infected are put in a closed-off hospital. One might expect allegories for seeing people for who they are and not what they look like. But the story, based on José Saramago’s novel, tackles much harsher, bleak and nuanced issues than simple racism, ageism and the like. I haven’t seen a mainstream non-horror film go to such dark places before. I foresee many expecting a simple thriller, walking out, demanding their money back. But for the more thoughtful and/or strong-willed viewer, this devastating and powerful film will have you talking for days.

In a very existential move, the characters have no proper names. The first blind man (Yusuke Iseya, CASSHERN) is driving when all of a sudden everything goes white. Everyone he encounters afterward and then everyone they encounter suffers the same fate. The one exception is the wife (Julianne Moore, BOOGIE NIGHTS) of his eye doctor (Mark Ruffalo, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME), who is the first to be put into quarantine by the government. His wife claims she is blind and comes along with him. Soon more and more people are quarantined. No doctors or staff are there to help. Men in hazmat suits drop off food each day and don’t take kindly to infected coming toward them. Scared of the increasing chaos, the doctor’s wife keeps her sight a secret.

With the entire population of the hospital unable to see spills or find rest rooms properly, the facility quickly becomes a trash heap. Think the Superdome during Katrina. The hospital is soon overflowing with people. Each ward elected a leader to help distribute the food. However, a young man on Ward 3 declares himself King. He has a gun. One day he takes control of the food supply, demanding the riches of the other Ward’s residents. When he’s collected all the cash and jewelry, he demands the women.

The filthy conditions turn humans into animals in this extreme LORD OF THE FLIES scenario. Some have complained that they didn’t believe that the government soldiers would be so harsh and leave the patients to die. I keep thinking of New Orleans and that wasn’t even a worldwide epidemic. In this world, even educated and good people devolve to their primal lusts. So when most people can’t see the horrors going on around them, what must it be like to be the only person who sees?

Moore is a fine actress, who handles this material with dignity and bravery. She brings such varying levels of emotion to the part. Ruffalo has a hard role as a man whose relationship with his wife so radically changes. He has a hard time coping with her new role as caretaker, making her more of a mother than a wife. Under these unthinkable conditions, does he have more in common with the blind prostitute with the dark glasses (Alice Braga, I AM LEGEND)? Danny Glover (LETHAL WEAPON) provides some touching moments as the old man with the black eye patch. Has blindness been the best thing that has ever happened to him? This is in stark contrast to the first blind man’s wife (Yoshino Kimura, TV’s MASTERS OF HORROR), who quietly blames her husband for their current situation.

As a global political message, the film is a harsh critique of atrocities that are ignored by major parts of the world. The nondescript city the story takes place in could be anywhere. Key characters are played by Asians, whites, Hispanics and Africans. The King of Ward 3 is no different than the tyrants who rule over places like Darfur. Intelligent people don’t want provoke the King of Ward 3 in fear of an all-out war. But if they could see, would that make a difference? I think the film answers that question resoundingly in the affirmative. At one point, a character says to the doctor’s wife that they are lucky to have a leader who can see. Any country would be lucky to say the same of their leaders.