Blindness

2008 • 121 minutes

About this movie

From acclaimed director Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener) comes this extraordinarily intense and gritty thriller that will change your vision of the world forever. Led by a powerful all-star cast featuring Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Danny Glover, this unflinching story begins when a plague of blindness strikes and threatens all of humanity. One woman (Moore) feigns the illness to share an uncertain fate in quarantine, where society is breaking down as fast as their crumbling surroundings. Based on Nobel Prize-winning Jose Saramago's novel - let Blindness lead you on a journey where the only thing more terrifying than being blind is being the only one who can see.

Ratings and reviews

I'm amazed that Miramax put their name on this thing. From the moment the film opens, it's total lack of credibility is obvious. The acting is stiff, mechanical and unemotional. Imagine for one second, if you were driving a car and you suddenly went blind, what would your reaction be? Fear? Anxiety? Of course, and more. How does the driver react? "Wow, I'm blind" with a perfectly deadpan expression and tone of voice. I certainly admire his restraint. A restraint that is shown by all the "victims". Wow, I've gone blind suddenly, ho hum, can I have some more tiramisu please? When they start quarantine, they throw the blind folks into a ward, and there's not one single staff member to help them find their assigned beds. OK, they're blind folks. What we see is a bunch of people stumbling around, running into each other, tripping over furniture, and not one staff person. Really? It was at this point that I stopped watching. Setting the bar at "ridiculous" this film can't even hit that mark.

Labored plot, fine principal actors, but the unfolding story surrounds them with stick figures, so no developing characters beyond tedious and predictable heroism.

My husband and I were talking about blindness and what it'd be like if everyone in the world were blind... low and behold someone already imagined this. Very interesting. Loved the apocalyptic scenario.