Two of my favorite movies of the last five years are City of God and The Constant Gardener. Both films were by Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles, who excels at presenting an unflinching look at the dark realities of being born poor with little to no future, as well as the boot crushing oppression being foisted upon these people by manipulative governments. Fernando's latest film, Blindness, somewhat falls into that same vein but it's more of a parable than the two previous films. It tells the story of a world in which the entire population has been stricken with a form of blindness. That is all except one person, played by the uber talented Julianne Moore.
The blindness strikes innocently and quietly at first: a single man driving along a busy city street. Then it spreads to the optometrist who treats him...the man who helped the driver get where he was going...and so forth. When her husband, the doctor who treated the first victim, goes blind himself and is to be herded along with dozens of others into a quarantine, Moore fakes blindness herself in order to be with her husband. She soon finds herself playing nursemaid to dozens of helpless others. What can only be described as a Lord of the Flies mentality begins to take shape inside the quarantine. More and more people are herded in, creating cramped conditions. Food is scarce as they are dependent on an evaporating government to feed them. They fend for themselves in squalid conditions, with feces and urine staining the walls, no clean clothes, and no form of entertainment. It's a combination set to explode at any time, and all Moore can do is watch it happen while the others remain blissfully unaware of just how horrible the situation is around them.
If you've noticed that I haven't named Moore's character in the film yet, it's for a simple reason: Nobody has names in this film. Her character is known simply as Doctor's Wife. Mark Ruffalo plays the Doctor. Danny Glover has perhaps the most labored performance of the film as simply Man with Black Eye Patch. It's Glover's character who tortorously narrates the early days of the epidemic's spread. It's a wasted scene that completely fails to get across the scope of what's truly occurring worldwide. We get a much better glimpse of that later on without the bad voice-over. Alice Braga, who was so terrible in David Mamet's Redbelt earlier this year, was somewhat improved this time around playing a prostitute who takes the disaster as a chance to remake herself. The only standout here other than the always reliable Moore is Gael Garcia Bernal, who plays a man who takes it upon himself to be the ruler of the camp. I'll admit to not liking the introduction of his character initially, but it was clear later on that without him this film might've devolved into a disaster because literally nothing was happening for about 45 minutes other than Moore cleaning up Mark Ruffalo's crap. Bernal takes advantage of the situation with brute force, and is the instigator of one of the most disturbing sex scenes I have ever witnessed on film.
It's the unflinching nature of this film that makes it almost required viewing, in my opinion. Meirelles has never been one to shy away from material that some might find unsettling, and this film is no different. You can almost smell the shit and piss on the walls. Julianne Moore and the others almost appear to waste away for real, to the point where it's almost impossible to not get caught up in their story. Again, the acts committed by Bernal in this film will probably drive some people out of the theater. I noticed some bristling from some of the other people in the theater with me. It doesn't matter that you can't see much, the sounds leave more than enough to your imagination.
It's unfortunate that all of the film doesn't hold up to the intensity of some of the stuff in the quarantine unit. For the most part this film plods along at a glacial pace with little to nothing going on. The film is shot in a washed out tone, giving everything a blueish glint similar in a way to Minority Report. Frankly, it made me sleepy. The final act of the film feels phony and unearned. I know these people have been through a lot, but the familial aspect they try to play up didn't feel quite right.
I'm somewhat torn on whether or not to recommend this. It's a solid film, well acted with a very unique premise. It's got some amazing camera work, and it generally looks very good. It's genuinely disturbing and uncomfortable to watch, which is something I love. But it's also extremely slow, with long stretches of time where nothing seems to be going on. That might be too much for some people. If you're into a very cerebral "thriller" of sorts, a film that will make you think then this is for you. Otherwise, wait for the DVD, and at least then you won't be going into it blind, so to speak.
6/10
