A good movie should make you feel different stages of emotions. Well, Blindness made me feel different emotions, but I don't think any of them were something a good movie should evoke. Blindness starts out very slow. They show the initial spread of the virus. Personally, I would think that this is something that could have been made very exciting, but instead it was just boring. Usually I would start to like at least one character by this point, but none of them were really likeable. Maybe it was because they followed too many people at the beginning without letting you latch onto anyone. Whatever the case, I was begging the movie to make something happen soon!
Finally they decide to quarantine all the infected people into one camp to avoid the spread. There are not supposed to be any uninfected people there, but when an eye doctor (Mark Ruffalo) gets sent there, his wife (Julianne Moore) pretends to be blind so that she doesn't have to be separated from him. You'll notice that I didn't tell you their names. That's because nobody has a name in this movie. I'm guessing that this is supposed to have some mental effect on the audience or something, but honestly I didn't even notice it until I sat down to write this and couldn't remember their names. I guess that shows how little I cared for these people.
So at this point, we have a whole lot of people (and I mean a lot!) crammed in one place with no support, little food, and they're all blind except one. We all know that there's going to be some jerk that's going to take over and abuse everyone else. But this time, he shouldn't be able to get away with it. There's only one person who can see, so she could easily stop him. But she's just too nice to do anything for way too long, making the entire time they're there beyond infuriating to me. I just kept thinking of that old saying that evil triumphs when good men do nothing. I couldn't sit by and watch people get treated that badly for so long, but I guess she's just a nicer person than me.
So anyway, after they finally leave the camp, the movie does get a little better. Not enough to save it, in my opinion, but at least it was better, which then brings us to the ending. I'm not sure I've ever seen a movie with a more anti-climatic ending. Of course I'm not going to tell you what happens because that would spoil the lack of fun for you.
The only redeeming feature of Blindness was the acting. Keep in mind that the actors can really see, but they have to pretend to be blind. They couldn't use blind actors because they wouldn't act like people who had suddenly lost sight. Every single actor was very believable in their portrayal of the characters. Julianne Moore has an even harder job because she has to play someone who can see part of the time, but still convince people that she can't see so that the military leaves her with her husband. She really does an amazing job in her part.
Great actors like Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, and Danny Glover just cannot make up for a poorly written script. Maybe I just didn't get the point, but I can honestly say that I have never been more disappointed in a movie than I was after seeing Blindness. I don't recommend you waste the time on it. Also, do be aware that this movie is rated R for good reason as there are some rather rough scenes in it, so please do not let your kids see it.
