Blindness

Watched Blindness with Stephen on Sat.

A blindness epidemic strikes an unnamed city, forcing the government to put many citizens in quarantine, including Ruffalo's doctor. Unable to conceive of life without him, Moore's character feigns blindness and joins him in the grimy high-security institution where visually impaired citizens are kept. Their attempt to survive in the rotting facility, which quickly falls into disrepair and chaos, forms the backbone of Meirelles's movie. Synopsis extracted from RT.

Julianne Moore gives a commendable performance as the only person who can see in the quarantine facility, although the story contains several gaping loopholes. The premise of the story is not about the virus, but rather about the innate nature of human beings struggling to survive in tumultuous conditions. This different approach brings a bit of contradiction to my expectations of it being a show like '28 Days/Weeks Later'.

The movie is visceral, with hygiene conditions in the worst form unimaginable, and also depicting inhumane acts that are loathsome and evil. Even from the sure hand of Fernando Meirelles, the movie does not engage emotionally and it feels a little pompous and detached.

***