A mysterious epidemic has left humanity blind, except for Julianne Moore.
Blindness is tired allegory. Its symbolism is drummed home with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Unnamed citizens in an unnamed city (at an unnamed time) are rendered sightless and quarantined to a prison camp by the government. There, they fall prey to a former bartender who declares himself dictator. Just as the Joker predicted, "When the chips are down, these civilized people will eat each other."
The themes of Blindness are far too obvious to be effective. Society crumbles and eventually a few hopeful survivors must pick up the shattered pieces. An unsettling mass rape scene comes off as excessively exploitive. The characters are cardboard stock. There’s the wise, old man who dispenses sage advice and the precocious child the adults have to look after.
What Blindness does have going for it are an A-list cast who give it their all and strong direction from Meirellas. He brings the same visceral, bleached out look that he brought to City of God and The Constant Gardener.
Rating: **
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