Blindness 'Fascinating' But Difficult to Watch

Not that director Meirelles' film is necessarily bad

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 3, 2008 2:56 PM CDT

(Newser) – Blindness is a hard film to watch, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad one. Some critics hated Fernando Meirelles’ parable about a plague of blindness; Roger Ebert called it “one of the most unpleasant, not to say unendurable, films I've ever seen.” But others appreciated the bleak tale. “By the time you walk out of the theater, you know you've seen something,” writes Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Meirelles employs experimental, sometimes blurry camera work, which both intrigues and rankles. LaSalle calls the film “almost unbearably ugly,” while Neely Tucker of the Washington Post found it “fascinating to look at, but not nearly so interesting to watch.” The story is an equally ugly tale of human cruelty that worked great in Nobel laureate Jose Saramago’s novel but doesn’t translate well. To Tucker, it “feels like we're reading Post-it notes stuck into the margins of Nietzsche.”

[Images (2)]

[Videos (1)]

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In this image released by Miramax Pictures, Danny Glover is shown in a scene from "Blindness." (AP Photo)

In this image released by Miramax Pictures, Julianne Moore, right, and Mark Ruffalo are shown in a scene from "Blindness." (AP Photo)

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When a sudden plague of blindness devastates a city, a small group of the afflicted band together to triumphantly overcome the horrific conditions of their imposed quarantine. (MovieMolester)

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Needless to say, don't see this movie to feel good about the fundamental decency of human beings. "Blindness" is for more
exotic tastes.
- Mick LaSalle

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Blindness 'Fascinating' But Difficult to Watch