Blindness is Don McKellar’s screenplay adaptation of Jose Saramago's science fiction novel with the same title. The movie, like the book, questions what would happen to society if a super bug that causes blindness were to suddenly infect a large urban center?
It starts like this: A man goes blind while waiting in his car at a stoplight on a sunny morning. The effect is bright instead of dark; the man sees only white light. He’s blind and holding up traffic. After some commotion, Thief (Don McKellar) offers to help the man and drive him to the hospital, and he becomes the next character to catch the disease.
The movie introduces more characters before settling on the heroes of story.
Mark Ruffalo plays The Doctor and is the first ophthalmologist to attempt to understand the affliction. The Doctor’s Wife, Julianne Moore soon becomes the vast exception to the rule, and indeed the premise on which this wonderful film hangs; Julianne Moore’s character does not go blind, and yet she suffers even greater pain as she tirelessly cares for the sick, and silently bears witness to the decomposition of society.
It could happen anywhere at anytime - people in Toronto will remember the fear that paralyzed the city during a sudden outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in North York General Hospital. Every American was shocked when they heard testimony of the bizarre and horrific occurrences in the New Orleans Super Dome during Hurricane Katrina. Blindness puts human characters in those same mental and moral conundrums where they hate themselves and the selfishness they need to survive.
Actually Blindness goes well beyond those scenarios and into the realm of genuine horror. Those who control the food rise above the others. Gael García Bernal, Sandra Oh, Danny Glover, Alice Braga, Martha Burns, and Maury Chaykin round out this amazing cast of characters. Each story offers a different perspective on the phenomenon.
Blindness reminds viewers of the fragility of modern civilization; this movie depicts the evolution of evil in an unknown, terrifying environment.
