Blindness

[rustinglass]

I don't really like the book, but I always recommend it to people.
I hope this will be a good film, and I'm really surprised by the bad reviews... but I'm also very intrigued about them. I think that at least this film will be something different.
I saw saramago on youtube weeping like a 6-year-old girl saying how much he loves the film... I can't believe it's really that bad.

[Pozer]

i didn't like the book all that much either.  i remember finding it hard to care or believe certain things that happened with the characters, almost a spoiler namely what happens with dark glasses girl and old eyepatch man. end  the story had me, but the overall route it took put me off.  i was looking forward to the movie though when i first heard about it and who was involved, but because of the excessive backlash, it's been a bit of a chore to get out to see it.

[pete]

so we have over a page of people saying they gonna see it?  anyone's actually seen it with an actual opinion on the movie?!
I'm so on the fence!

[Pozer]

haha, i was hoping you were gonna have a review/opinion.  was holding out for Ghostboy's thoughts or at least a "there was blindness" from modage.

i'm gonna attempt (again) to see this tonight.   

[Pozer]

it's a very precise adaptation of the book.  awkward dialogue and all.  there is a line from Julianne Moore over a fade to black that no smart filmmaker would have kept in.  Meirelles tried a bit too hard with the visuals he applied.  it's an understandable approach i suppose - milky whites, out of focus, camera POV - but it became too.. too.  there should have came a point where he realized this one should have stayed on the page.   

[rustinglass]

The movie isn't playing here yet, but there was a special screening this week organized by an association of the blind and vision impaired. And they loved it. I mean, they were crying after the film.

when asked about the controversy of the protests in the US, the president of this association said: "We have not identified in any way with the blindness of the film because Fernando Meirelles is quite clear that this is an allegory. It is a spiritual blindness, a blindness of values".

pozer: is the film annoying? I remember that one of the reasons why I disliked the book was because saramago kept making the point of how it was near impossible to do trivial things like going down stairs when you're blind. I thought "alright! I get it! it's hard not to see! I don't need ten pages of 'did you ever think how hard it would be to wipe your ass clean when you're blind'!" Is the movie annoying in this way too?

[Pozer]

i wouldn't say so.  in fact, that scene was handled well in the movie.  i believe there was voice over originally (in the Cannes version) which probably had some of that annoyance you're talking about which i remember made the book a bit of a chore to get through.  would have killed the movie entirely.

[ElPandaRoyal]

I think it's flawed, but it works in man ways. As the book, the movie has a kind of austere feeling to it, more like a study on human condition with the viewer/reader watching/reading an experience rather than putting them completely inside the story and characters. There are some powerful things in the movie, great scenes and Julianne Moore rocks as always, yet it's not as successful as the book in dealing with characters we don't know much about. When the book gets introspective, I think it works, but the movie doesn't always. Meirelles said it was the toughest part of making the movie since, when characters don't talk much about themselves you need something to let us know how they feel, and in movies, the eyes play a big part in expressing emotion and since in this case everybody goes blind, well, it can be a problem. Anyway, I don't get all the bad reviews. It is a very tough movie to watch, but it's a violent story, it couldn't be any other way, and I think the ending is really beautiful. It should be seen by everyone.

[Alexandro]

The bad reviews are ridiculous. It's OK to not like a film. But people come up with the weirdest reasons to not liking it. I would find it easier to take the reviews seriously if they didn't try so hard to make arguments on basis going from "hard to believe" (who is looking for realism here?) "unpleasant" (was it supposed to be pleaseant?), to really exasperating affirmations like "film shouldn't be done only as metaphor". Film can be whatever the fuck film wants to be. There are no rules. The approach may work or not, but there are absolutely no rules whatsoever. It pisses me off when critics come up with crap like that. You didn't like it, fine, share that experience with us, but don't make up regulations for art.

The film itself I thought was admirable. A few things didn't translate too well to the screen, but overall it's impressive. I thought it was very intelligent the way Meirelles creates the "blind" atmosphere. I don't think it was too much. On the contrary I kept being surprised by him sustaining this for the entire lenght of the picture. If he had repeated the same shit over and over it would have been tiresome, but he managed to blend in stuff that he repeated throughout with new ways to show the blindness and so never make it old. There are a bunch of very well handled moments, visually. The encounter of the asian couple for once, was really heartbreaking.

The sound design was amazing, even in the shitty sound system of the theatre I went to it was clear this was an excellent work. The score also, fit perfectly with the whole aesthetic approach the film has.

Julianne Moore rocks the house. But really every actor stands his ground here and go with the flow.

This film will gain some respect with time. It's no masterpiece, but it is way better than what critics are saying.

[MacGuffin]

Didn't read the book, so I can't compare, but I was blown away. I was so into this film. Right from the opening, it draws you in. And then I couldn't keep my eyes off of it (pun intended). Just an interesting study of people.  There's a sequence of "trades," the last of them being just gut-wrenching and painful to watch. It was as powerful as the women being lead off the train in Schindler's List. I couldn't help shedding tears.

[squints]

well i was wondering what to do with my day off...
i had given up on this movie long ago due to the incredibly bad reviews. but now its on the discount shelf and i've nothing to do today!