Blindness (2008)

Studio: Echo Bridge

Theatrical Release: October 3rd, 2008

Blu-Ray Release: August 7th, 2012

Rating: R

Directed by Fernando Meirelles

Review by Craig Sorensen



Blindness is the kind of film that really, really wants you to know how good it is.  I mean, they really lay it on pretty goddamn thick in the opening third of the film.  So many goddamn camera tricks, I mean, come on.  I get it, you’re all awesome filmmakers so enough already.  Look, on it’s own terms, the story of Blindness is pretty compelling.  It’s ripe with symbolism, there’s lot of drama, what more do you really need?  Blindness also has a hell of a cast who give the film everything they’ve got.  So why the hell can’t the filmmakers get out of the way?

So Blindness is about a mysterious disease that makes people go blind.  Mark Ruffalo plays an eye doctor (oh the irony) who is one of the first few to be struck with the disease.  Julianne Moore is his wife, who seems to be immune.  Anyway, with the disease quickly turning into a pandemic, the Canadian government decides that it’d be a good idea to start quarantining the infected.  So they start gathering them up and locking them in what looks like an abandoned asylum of some sort.  Of course, Ruffalo gets taken away as well.  Moore pretends to be blind as well rather than live without her husband.  With everyone in confinement, before you can say Lord of the Flies, gangs start to form.  Will Moore be able to hide her sight from the rest of the interred while fighting for dwindling food rations?  Will there be lots of crying?  Will all the color be muted and desaturated?

Blindness has a hell of a cast, like I said, and they give the film everything they’ve got, sometimes to the point of overacting.  The acting is never less than entertaining though.  Ruffalo and Moore do a fine job of carrying the film and a cast made up of character actors add lots of color to the proceedings.  The stand out for me though is Danny Glover.  He doesn’t have a whole lot to do through most of the film but he steals the show in every scene.

Echo Bridge’s recent Blu-Ray looks fantastic.  Honestly, this is probably the best release from them that I’ve seen.  This looks about as close to the theatrical presentation as we’re likely to get in the medium.  The colors are all desaturated, which is purposful, but they look natural.  There’s plenty of detail, especially in the many close-ups.  Audio also sounds stellar.  You get a very nice DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless audio track.  The use of surround sound in the film is very nice and it’s good to finally get some use out of those speakers after all the old mono films that I usually watch.  You also get three bonus features, two making of features (A Vision of Blindness and The Seeing Eye) and a short collection of deleted scenes.  Overall a very nice package.

[Rating: 2.5]