Review of Blindness (2008) by Mbeckford — 16 Sep 2014
An entertaining movie with excellent acting and an intriguing plot that lost a star or two due to illogical story elements (which I would typically accept in a postapocalyptic thriller ... zombie apocalypse anyone?) After a group of people in some unnamed city fall victim to a blindness epidemic, they get thrown into an abandoned facility run by the military for quarantine.
Julian Moore, the lead protagonist, is immune to the blindness but pretends to be blind anyway so she can accompany her husband, Mark Ruffalo. The majority of the movie is a harrowing tale of how a growing population of confined blind prisoners cope with little-to-no care.
It's essentially an adult "Lord of the Flies." To describe my issue, I need to put a "spoiler alert" disclaimer before I continue. ****** A nefarious faction in the "prison" begins to ruthlessly extort and rape the other groups in exchange for their rations.
Moore and Ruffalo's characters do their best to keep their group civilized. My bugaboo is that Moore rarely uses her ability "to see" to an advantage. How hard would it be to sneak past the blind bad guys while they are sleeping or distracted.
She and the other women are repeatedly sexually assaulted, but it isn't until one of the women is killed during one of these episodes that she decides to do something about it. Having sight when everyone else is blind is like a super-power that isn't used until very late in the movie.
Beyond that it is an entertaining twist on the apocalyptic drama.
This review of Blindness (2008) was written by Mbeckford on 16 Sep 2014.
Blindness has generally received mixed reviews.
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