Blindness

Blindness, Fernando Mierelles hotly anticipated new film starring Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo opened the Cannes Film Festival and the early reviews are in-- and sadly now it looks like a bust.


Jeffery Wells from Hollywood Elsewhere says, "I'm sorry to be saying what I'm saying as I worshipped Meirelles' City of God and very much admired The Constant Gardener. But the truth is that Blindness is more than a bit of a flub."

Variety isn't much kinder stating, "The personal and mass chaos that would result if the human race lost its sense of vision is conveyed with diminished impact and an excess of stylish tics in Blindness, an intermittently harrowing but diluted take on Jose Saramago's shattering novel. Despite a characteristically strong performance by Julianne Moore as a lone figure who retains her eyesight, bearing sad but heroic witness to the horrors around her, Fernando Meirelles' slickly crafted drama rarely achieves the visceral force, tragic scope and human resonance of Saramago's prose. Despite marquee names, mixed reviews might yield fewer eyes than desired for this international co-production."

Only Emmanuel Levy seems to support the film, even if only slightly proclaiming, "Blindness, Fernando Meirelles' new film, is an honorable and challenging but not great follow-up to his spectacular debut, City of God, and the highly accomplished The Constant Gardener, both superior films that were Oscar-nominated."

Too bad!