Blindness

Fernando Mereilles has created a visceral film out of José Saramago's allegorical novel about an unnamed city that suddenly becomes blind. Unfortunately, and in spite of its obvious good intentions and faithfulness to the original source, the overriding impression is one of a rather clunky post-apocalyptic thriller. Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore play an opthamologist and his wife. He is one of the first people to go blind and she remains the one person who is unafflicted. Inititally, the blind are swept into an isolated facility so as not to infect the rest of the population. Moore's character claims blindness in order to stay with her husband and it's through her eyes that we see the ensuing descent into chaos.

Although the rest of the cast is strong, Julianne Moore is riveting. It's such a pity that she gave two such strong performances in 2008 (the other being in Savage Grace) that won't be seen by a wider audience. As the script doesn't seem overly concerned with character, its through Moore's expressive face that we feel the burden that she has to carry.

For a film that didn't really satisfy me, this gets an awful lot right. The direction and cinematography, both designed to emulate the sensation of blindness are varied and expressive, although those who have seen The Diving Bell and the Butterfly might note some similarities. Mereilles' vision of social degradation is remarkably convincing, scary even. It certainly helps that the location is so carefully established as an oppressive, frightening metropolis bleached of both colour and familiarity. This helps the movie to establish itself as an allegory, but it is this very thoughfulness that ultimately cripples the movie. In spite of Mereilles' careful use of location and a well-chosen cast, certain story elements don't carry over well from the source material. In the novel, the fact that none of the characters had names seemed conducive to Saramago's style of writing but here it appears obvious, patronising even; Danny Glover's voiceover doesn't help. The message of Mereilles' movie seems like one we've heard before, and the script doesn't have enough subtlety of expression to make us really care for these characters.

Having said that, the best scenes (notably an attack on Gael García Bernal's tyrannical inmate) are tense and frightening and any fans of Julianne Moore are bound to want to check this out.