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Spoiler Alert
After people start to lose their sight, the government sets up a special quarantined zone so that it will not spread. After an eye doctor goes blind, his wife (who still has her sight) says she has gone blind as well. She becomes the primary caregiver of these people. The conditions in which they live become poor as the days drag on. People began to take control, proclaiming themselves to the appointed king of the quarantined people. What ensues next is chaos. People will do whatever they can to stay alive.
Blindness is particularly effective during the opening hour. We see all these people mysteriously going blind, claiming to see white light. Then we see them struggle to cope with it, relying on the people they are now housing with to help them out. We see them desperately trying to find some way of life, some understanding of why this is happening. Most of all we these people trying to maintain any shred of humanity they possibly can. The opening act was full of interesting dialogue, interesting events and damn fine acting.
Act 2 however, becomes more of a power struggle between different groups of the blind. What is lost upon act 2 is that Blindness does not have to be a pandemic; there are still ways of living with blindness. This movie became almost like a blind zombie flick without the zombies. People were losing their minds, acting out selfishly. The transition from smooth act 1 to over the top act 2 was too much. It became a mass jumble of people living in desperate conditions, bowing down to one man going through the same thing they were. The one that made it even more on unbearable is that the good side supposedly had an advantage. One person in the entire complex can see, and what does she do she waits until it was far too late. Typical cliché, the hero only becomes the hero after something bad happens.
Blindness is a film that genuinely had my attention. There was much worth praising about the opening hour. It was mysterious; the camera shots were in and out of focus to help us understand what the blind people were feeling and going through. The acting on all fronts was top notch. Ruffalo and Moore were awesome, bringing to life the pain both their characters felt about being divided by something they had no control over. Alice Braga plays an interesting part. Her character admires Moore’s character for what she is doing, but is also so drawn to her husband because they can relate to each other.
Many people will disagree but the scene of passion between the doctor and the woman with dark glasses was necessary. The use of white light and out of focus shots is what sold the scene for me. They knew nothing about each other really, yet the doctor and this woman were drawn together because of what was happening to them. His wife could see and he points out during the middle that she is more like a mother to him then a wife. The only thing that sort of lets me down after this scene is that they all go back to living in order and stay together as a pack of friends. Perhaps this could have brought a better tension to act 2 then fighting amongst other blind prisoners. After this scene and then the escape from the compound it becomes the clichéd march through wasteland. There was no reason the world became a destroyed mess, blindness is not a viral outbreak, people can still go on with their lives. Perhaps showing how the whole world would adapt to living blind would have been a better film to watch.
Shut the film off with 10 minutes left. If you were disappointed with the second act, then stop right before the not so interesting conclusion. It is boring and serves no purpose to the story. It makes the entire film seem pointless and random, so if you love the entire film I suggest not watching the last 5-10 minutes.
