Blindness

Based on Jose Saramago's brilliant allegorical novel, director Fernando Meirelles' Blindness suffers mightily from turning a literary tour de force into a literal clunker that comes across as an unremittingly ugly and pretentiously misanthropic film. As in the novel, the action plunges headlong into the story, when a young man (Yusuke Iseya) inexplicably loses his sight while driving. An ophthalmologist (Mark Ruffalo) can offer no explanation, and before long people all over the city are likewise stricken—including the doctor. Fearing a terrorist attack, the government herds the victims into an abandoned mental hospital. Although she has retained her sight, the wife (Julianne Moore) of the eye doctor feigns blindness to remain with her husband. Left entirely to their own devices without medical care or supervision, with food and drink carefully rationed by soldiers who leave it in the hospital courtyard, the internees quickly panic and devolve to a near-feral state, with one ferocious figure (Gael Garcia Bernal) setting himself up as a dictator and forcing the women of Moore's ward to submit to rape in exchange for food. Although the movie's third act goes off in a different direction and ends on a hopeful if inexplicable note, the story that was so powerful on the page is lost in translation to the big screen. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: DVD extras include the hour-shy “making-of” documentary “A Vision of Blindness,” six minutes of deleted scenes, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a dramatic misfire.] (E. Hulse)[Blu-ray Review—Aug. 14, 2012—Echo Bridge, 121 min., R, $14.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 2008's Blindness sports a decent transfer with DTS 5.1 sound. Blu-ray extras are identical to those on the DVD release, including “A Vision of Blindness” making-of documentary (56 min.), “The Seeing Eye” behind-the-scenes featurette (36 min.), deleted scenes (7 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a fine Blu-ray debut for this film that split critics.]