Blindness (2008)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Fernando Meirelles

Writers:

José Saramago (novel)
Don McKellar (screenplay)

Release Date:

3 October 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Lust is blind.

Plot:

A city is ravaged by an epidemic of instant "white blindness". Those first afflicted are quarantined...

Plot Keywords:

Blindness | Quarantine | Doctor | Epidemic | Illness

Awards:

12 wins & 14 nominations

Cast

Yusuke Iseya	...	First Blind Man
Jason Bermingham	...	Driver #1
Eduardo Semerjian	...	Concerned Pedestrian #1
Don McKellar	...	Thief
Ciça Meirelles	...	Driver #2
Antônio Fragoso	...	Concerned Pedestrian #2
Lilian Blanc	...	Concerned Pedestrian #3
Douglas Silva	...	Onlooker #1
Daniel Zettel	...	Onlooker #2
Yoshino Kimura	...	First Blind Man's Wife
Joe Pingue	...	Taxi Driver
Susan Coyne	...	Receptionist
Danny Glover	...	Man with the Black Eye Patch
Fabiana Guglielmetti	...	Mother of the Boy (as Fabiana Gugli)
Mitchell Nye	...	Boy

Also Known As:

Blindness (Japan: English title)
Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira (Brazil)
L'aveuglement (Canada: French title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence including sexual assaults, language and sexuality/nudity.

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

Canada | Brazil | Japan

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Netherlands:16 | Brazil:16 | UK:18 | Canada:14A | Japan:PG-12 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Ireland:15A | Singapore:M18 | Portugal:M/16 | Germany:12 | Chile:14 | Argentina:16 | South Korea:18 | Finland:K-15 | Peru:14 | Taiwan:R-12 | Hong Kong:IIB | France:U (with warning) | Mexico:B15 | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R18

Filming Locations:

Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Rhombus Media

Trivia:

In addition to cutting it, Julianne Moore dyed her signature red hair blonde for the film. This made her very uncomfortable because people were giving the new color so much attention.

Goofs:

Continuity: The pistol used in the movie appears to be a snub-nosed revolver, typically holding between 5 to 10 bullets. The number of rounds fired off without any indication of reloading is closer to 15 throughout the "Ward 3" standoff.

Quotes:

[first lines]
First Blind Man: I'm blind.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: (#8.30)" (2009)

I really don't know, this is a brilliant film and a slow paced one and a well acted film and a... well, you get the idea

I remember seeing the trailer for Blindness back in April, I thought this looked like a terrific film and was just looking forward to it. I had the opportunity to see it this last Tuesday, I wasn't too sure though on what to expect, was this a horror movie, was it a suspense thriller or maybe was it meant to speak to society? Well, all of thee above, it had some really scary moments, very intense moments, as well as showing us how we take something so precious for granted, our sight. However this film did throw me off, it was a little slow paced at times and some scenes could have been shorter as well as the story would have some strange moments that really just made it seem like it was a straight horror film while I think this should have been a more balance mixture of each genre that I described before. I was never that big on Julianne Moore either, but she pulls in a great performance and was very strong, she carries the story pretty well.

We open with one man caught in the middle of a horrible rush hour, all of a sudden he looses his sight, a man offers to drive him home and steals his car. The man and his wife go to the eye doctor, the eye doctor doesn't see any symptoms that would prove anything causing his blindness. But the next morning, the eye doctor is blind as well, he and his wife go to a government holding center where they fear that the blindness is contagious as the blindness spreads throughout the country. But things get dramatically worse as the blind people start to turn on one another and make things very violent and fatal towards each other.

Blindness is a very powerful movie and is over all worth the watch, I do have a couple problems with the movie, like the pacing of the movie as well as the story. We never find out what causes the blindness, was it a disease, was it a terrorist plot, was it technology...? It's just a very interesting film, I had to think Blindness over for a while, I was walking out of the theater and someone said it was the worst film she had ever seen in her life and when I went to the bathroom and saw another person who saw the movie said that it was such a powerful movie and that she was very pleased with the film and how it was made. So I'm going to say this movie is for a certain kind of person, it has it's flaws, but if you are truly a film buff, I would say that it's worth the look.

7/10