Blindness(2008)

3.5/5

Blindness is based on an eponymous novel written by the Nobel laureate Jose Saramego. It is a kind of post-apocalyptic tale where in the catastrophe which has fallen upon the human beings is a plague of ‘white blindness’ as opposed to the darkness which is supposed to engulf you if you are ‘conventionally’ blind.

One fine morning people start going blind. It is an infection which spreads fast. The government is clinical in response. It quarantines the blind in hospitals. The wards start filling up rather quickly which leads to inter-ward conflicts.  

The movie is through the eyes of the wife of an ophthalmologist who surprisingly is immune from the blindness. She lies to the authorities so she can stay with her husband in the hospital. She assumes the role of the natural leader.

The movie does a better job than the book of showing the travails which the lady has to endure. Others on account of going blind stop caring. She sees and is alarmed, repelled, disturbed but keeps on enduring.

Juliane Moore is excellent in her role as the wife. You can feel the pain she is feeling just by looking at her eyes. Mark Ruffalo, who is her husband, doesn't get a meaty role and is limited to talking peacefully with miscreants and showing concern for his enterprising wife.

The direction is top notch and the scenes which show the depravity to which humans can sink are shot aesthetically but still end up shocking you.

This had me enthralled for most of its length.