Blindness (2008)

Tags

Blindness, Drama, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Movie

how's my hair? ha! just kidding...you're blind...

R

Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo

Doctor: (who is blind, addressing a room full of blind people)  Ok, I think he’s right.  If anyone’s willing to go, I think you should raise your hands.
Other person: …what?
Doctor: That’s about the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever suggested…

A strange “white blindness” starts to spread across the country, and the government, thinking a disease is responsible, begins packing the crippled people into containment facilities, leaving them to survive mostly on their own.  Julianne Moore plays a doctor’s wife who pretends she’s blind in order to accompany her husband to the facility he’s taken to.  Once inside, the question becomes will these people come together to help each other, or will it become every man and woman for themselves?

This comes close to being a fairly good movie, but it manages to fall a bit short.  It has an interesting, dream-like look to it throughout, which works pretty well to help us identify with the situation the characters are in.  It also does a good job of creating a miserable world inside the containment facility that all these people have to survive in, unsupervised by any sighted people to help them.  The stuff that doesn’t work is the heavy-handed message that if we’re all blind to appearances, things would be better in the world.  Seems like a noble message, but the movie seems to contradict its own premise as we see the different wards in the facility basically go to war with each other.

After several rapes and murders have occured, Danny Glover’s speech near the end about how he wishes things could stay this way, with everyone blind, seems foolish.  I suppose he’s just referring to the small group that has emerged from the facility alive, as friends, but we can’t forget the events that preceded their bonding moments.

There are good performances and some decent writing, though I thought Julianne Moore let things go too far with the other ward, to an unrealistic extent.  As the only person with sight there, she could have easily brought an end to the terrorizing that some of the characters were unleashing on the rest of the occupants.  Especially when the threat of mass rape entered into play.

In the end, I wanted to like the movie more than it seemed to let me like it.  The horribleness of the situation works well, but the message it seems to want to say doesn’t.  Also, if you noticed that I haven’t used any character names, that’s because nobody’s name is said in the movie.  That’s more of the effort to put everybody on equal ground.

10 – 2 for the message of the movie not really working well – 1.5 for unbelievable character motivations/actions – .5 for never really supplying any explanation, or even real theories or hints as to what is happening and why + .3 for a good sense of realism = 6.3

Children of Men (2006)

Tags

Action, Children of Men, Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Movie, Science Fiction

is that a, um...pig...floating outside...?

R

Clive Owen, Michael Caine, Clare-Hope Ashitey

Julian: Ya know that ringing in your ears?  That ‘eeeeeeeeee’?  That’s the sound of the ear cells dying, like their swan song.  Once it’s gone, you’ll never hear that frequency again.  Enjoy it while it lasts.

It’s the year 2027, 18 years after all women became infertile and the last human was born on the earth.  Theo (Owen) is just an average citizen going about his days, trying not to care about the misery around him, when his ex-wife thrusts him back into the world of vigilante activism.  Theo learns that a young woman has somehow become pregnant, and it’s up to him to protect her.

There’s one major thing that Sci-Fi movies set in the future need to do, and that’s convince you of their reality.  This movie definitely does that.  It immerses you in its world more effectively than any other Sci-Fi movie I’ve seen recently, or maybe ever.  It uses some astonishing special effects not to wow the viewer, but to create its reality more convincingly.

The political backdrop is a little muddy and hard to follow, but that’s really beside the point.  The story you want to follow is of Theo and his attempts to keep Kee (Ashitey) safe from those that might want to profit from her or harm her.  Her baby gives Theo hope that he’s been sorely lacking since his own child died years ago, and he knows it could give the world hope as well.  The stuff about illegal immigrants being imprisoned and why there’s so much anti-government backlash is there to add texture to this vision of the future, but it’s not critical to following and enjoying the movie.

Another impressive thing is the way they give the movie almost a documentary feel by using hand held cameras and long, continous takes.  It requires some very elaborately staged action sequences, but I think it makes the viewer feel far more involved in the action than a Michael Bay type movie that uses jump cuts every .07 seconds.

It’s not without its faults though.  The dialogue is a little clunky at times, with too much exposition at the beginning, and it can be a little confusing at times as to who’s on whose side and what their motives are.  All in all, though, it’s an enjoyable ride in a realistically bleak setting, with an interesting story and good performances.

10 – 1.1 for some confusing moments and character motivations + .3 for great camera work – .4 for some poor dialogue moments in the beginning – .4 for being almost too bleak and depressing = 8.2

Next (2007)

Tags

Action, Drama, Julianne Moore, Movie, Next, Nicolas Cage, Nicolas Cage’s Hair, Science Fiction

I should have seen the bad haircut coming...

PG-13

Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Nicolas Cage’s Hair

Cris: I’ve seen every possible ending. None of them are good for you.

Cris Johnson (Cage) can see two minutes into his own future.  The government is after him because they think he can help them stop a terrorist plot to detonate a nuclear device in the U.S.   The terrorists are after him for the same reason.

I knew this was going to be bad going into it, so it’s a good thing it was free on-demand!

Where to begin…?  It really seems like the writers just bent Cris’ future-sight gift to suit whatever plot developments they needed it to.  Also, how am I supposed to believe that Jessica Biel’s character is going to trust creepy-looking, creepy-acting Nicolas Cage enough after 5 minutes of knowing him to give him a ride somewhere?

Lame dialogue, lame special effects, lame ideas stolen from other movies, lame romance, vague villains…it all adds up to…not much.

There was one good action sequence near the end, but even that was almost ruined by some scenes that made little or no sense.

10 – 6.5 for being unoriginal, dull, and confusing – .5 for Cage’s weird hair + .2 for Biel being easy on the eyes = 3.2