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Based on the 1995 novel Blindness by José Saramago, an epidemic causes blindness in a modern city, resulting in the collapse of society. The novel's author originally refused to sell rights for a film adaptation, not wanting it to fall into the wrong hands. Meirelles was able to acquire rights with the condition that the film would be set in an unrecognizable city.
Cast
Julianne Moore as Doctor's Wife
Mark Ruffalo as Doctor
Danny Glover as Man with Black Eye Patch
Gael García Bernal as Bartender/King of Ward 3
Alice Braga as Woman with Dark Glasses
Don McKellar as Thief
Sandra Oh as Minister of Health
Yusuke Iseya as First Blind Man
Yoshino Kimura as First Blind Man's Wife
Maury Chaykin as Accountant
Mitchell Nye as Boy
Susan Coyne as Receptionist
Martha Burns as Woman with Insomnia
Detail Info
Directed by Fernando Meirelles
Produced by Niv Fichman, Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Sonoko Sakai
Written by Don McKellar
Narrated by Danny Glover
Music by Uakti
Cinematography César Charlone
Editing by Daniel Rezende
Distributed by Miramax Films
Release date(s) September 12, 2008
Country Japan, Canada, Brazil
Language English
Budget $25 million
Critical reception
Screen International's Cannes screen jury which annually polls a panel of international film critics gave the film a 1.3 average out of 4, placing the film on the lower-tier of all the films screened at competition this year. Of the film critics from the Screen International Cannes critics jury, Alberto Crespi of the Italian publication L'Unita, Michel Ciment of French film magazine Positif and Dohoon Kim of South Korean film publication Cine21, all gave the film zero points (out of four).
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter described Blindness as "provocative" but "predictable cinema", startling but failing to surprise. Honeycutt criticized the film's two viewpoints: Julianne Moore's character, the only one who can see, is slow to act against atrocities, and the behavior of Danny Glover's character comes off as "slightly pompous". Honeycutt explained, "This philosophical coolness is what most undermines the emotional response to Meirelles' film. His fictional calculations are all so precise and a tone of deadly seriousness swamps the grim action." Justin Chang of Variety described the film: "Blindness emerges onscreen both overdressed and undermotivated, scrupulously hitting the novel's beats yet barely approximating, so to speak, its vision." Chang thought that Julianne Moore gave a strong performance but did not feel that the film captured the impact of Saramago's novel.
Stephen Garrett of Esquire complimented the director's style: "Meirelles [honors] the material by using elegant, artful camera compositions, beguiling sound design and deft touches of digital effects to accentuate the authenticity of his cataclysmic landscape." Despite the praise, Garrett believed that the Meirelles's talent at portraying real-life injustice in City of God and The Constant Gardener did not suit him for directing the "heightened reality" of Saramago's social commentary
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