Thursday, January 15, 2009

BLINDNESS (2008)

An epidemic of blindness, known as white blindness strikes in the city & all those who are affected transferred in a special quarantine for analysis. An ophthalmologist (Mark Ruffalo) got infected with one of his patient & quarantined. His wife (Julianne Moore) pretended the infection in front of authority, just to be with his hubby & help him during quarantine. Slowly & steadily she became a helping & guiding angel for all quarantined blind inmates & miraculously she remained unaffected among all (which is the only impractical part shown in the film). As infected ones are increasing with every single passing day & it becomes fix situation for her to control & care everyone. Amid all chaos, there is a self proclaimed man with a gun proclaimed his leadership over food in quarantined wards & exploits others. Among all this hell the lady can’t let her human spirit down & continued to help her hubby & ends up helping all.

Bright eye catching white images on the screen were aimed to the audience to feel subjectively the conditioning of victims & helps in cultivating intensity in the film too. The chaos created with blindness is amplified with apt description of imagination which seems so realistic to create impact over viewers. Especially with images like- some nude humans loitering & pissing all around in the ward. The movie raised two pertinent points. How helpless, poor & ignorant the medical science & bureaucracy are in the time of some unknown chaos. They not only fail to curb or solve the menace but add more chaos in society. Who is blind one here is a big question? Second, how the time of crisis united the people belonging to different color & creed as one family on one hand & how shamelessly cruel & greedy humans are even under the blindness on the other hand. It’s basic helplessness of human knowledge & the need of support which is focused in the film.

Julianne Moore has probably done one of the best act of her life in this & it’s certainly an impressive performance to watch without a doubt. Technically the film is faultless & I would like to praise brilliant cinematography, sound & visual editing of the film. Even though the film is similar to Boyle’s ‘28 Days Later’ in subject but refreshingly fresh & more impressive with intense execution from beginning to end by director Fernando Meirelles ; a master filmmaker who gave us brilliant cult classic ‘City of God’ & one more docu-drama ‘The Constant Gardener’. I become a big fan of him with this third film watching experience & waiting for his next one desperately. What I also love is the movie doesn’t end with expected dark ending but with a beautiful hope.
A beautifully well made creative film of 2008. An experience not to miss.

Strongly Recommended.

Ratings-8.5/10

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