DVD Review: Blindness Two-Disc Edition

Social Drama Stars Julianne Moore in a World Populated by the Blind

Feb 19, 2009

When an epidemic called "white blindness" causes social order to break down in an unnamed city, Julianne Moore is the last one to see, in this though provoking film. 7/10

It all begins with rush hour morning traffic. An Asian business man (Yuseke Iseya) suddenly loses his sight while idling at an intersection, seeing nothing but a white blur in his field of vision. He gets helped by a passerby (Don McKellar), who helps drive him home to his wife. Said samaritan takes advantage of the situation and steals the man's car.

Soon afterwards, the thief loses his sight. Meanwhile, the businessman heads off to the ophtalmlogist (Mark Ruffalo) with his wife, to discover there is nothing wrong with him (other than being completely blind, seeing only a white haze). It isn't long before the doctor, patient, the patient's wife and all other patients within to or three degrees of separation go blind as well.

By the next few days, it becomes apparent that there is an epidemic in progress, and the government wastes no time in secluded those affected in a quarantined area. Afraid to lose track of her ophtalmalogist husband, the doctor's wife (Julianne Moore) tells the paramedics she too has gone blind, when in fact she appears immune to this sudden illness.

As the afflicted are sent into a run down facility and told to organize some form of ward leadership to keep order amongst the blind, it doesn't take long before mayhem and disarray takes place, given everyone's inability to see, while being boxed in, with food shortage and hygiene issues taking place soon thereafter.

When criminal elements within the pool of infected start taking unlawful control of this small population's limited resources, it's up to the doctor's wife to help those around her, without giving away the secret that she's been able to see these horrors all along.

This film makes a very strong statement as to the fragility of society and the freedom and liberties it takes for granted. Based on the book of the same name, written by Nobel Laureate José Saramago back in 1995, this film continues to operate on the author's preference in omitting specific details (i.e. the names of the characters are never given, so we only know them as "the thief", "the man with the eye patch", "the doctor's wife" and so on), allowing the viewer/reader to focus on the issues at hand, rather than the les relevant frills attached to said events.

Interestingly, the film's writer (and co-star) Don McKellar, along with producer Nic Fichman, had trouble securing permission for the films rights, from Saramago. The writer had reservations as to whether the movie could be effectively done while retaining the essence of his book. As a form of compromise, McKellar and Fichman agreed to set the story in an unnamed city, with no real means of identifying country, state, city, or government. This would lend the film a universal appeal, providing full mobility for the story and its actors, to delve into the project without taking away from the social commentary.

Julianne Moore goes through the gamut of emotions as "the doctor's wife", a woman at first concerned with the safety and well-being for her husband, soon becoming a secret watcher and guardian over the blind masses around her. She is a proxy for the audience, who themselves are voyeuristically witnessing the chaos, order unravelling before our very eyes.

The rest of the cast is quite the smorgasbord of actors, interestingly spread over various ethinic groups, to better reflect the world population, reduced to one building's worth of characters. Cast members include Mark Ruffalo, Don McKellar, Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal, Maury Chaykin, and Sandra Oh.

Though not designed as a horror movie in any shape or form, viewers with sensitive stomachs may find the film a bit intense at times, with depictions of crimes and violence stemming from instinctual actions of the basest human form, and unsavory scenes of death and filth resulting from the urban chaos.

Disc Two of this film contains an hour-long featurette, which shows the process in which the cast and crew learned to convey actual blindness convincingly, by way of rehearsing blinfolded, and wearing opaque lenses while on set.

7 out of 10 for faithfully conveying the relevant essence of Saramago's novel to the screen.

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