Blindness by Fernando Meirelles

Blindness is the latest film by brazilian director, Fernando Meirelles (City of God and The Constant Gardener). It is an adaptation of the novel, "Ensaio sobre a cegueira", by portuguese Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago. Starring are Julianne Moore (Doctor's Wife), Mark Ruffalo (Doctor), Alice Braga (The Dark Glasses), Danny Glover (The Black Eye Patch) and Gael Garcia Bernal (King of Ward Three).

An epidemic of white blindness attacks the city and its first victims are quarantined without much food nor help from the authorities. The Doctor's Wife is the only one able to see but keeps it a secret from the rest. Mayhem overcomes as one of the three wards (Ward Three led by a self-proclaimed king and a previously blind man) imposes the other two wards, selling food for the valuables and having sex with their women. The people from the outside world eventually gets the blindness and the world falls into an apocalyptic stage where chaos and destruction overcomes civilization.

Meirelles adapts this literary classic very outstandingly. Through the images we feel how the characters struggle with their sudden blindness. The white color is abundant in all the shots as well as the light that gives this atmosphere of hopelessness. Rare camera shots as in his previous movies (City of God-esque shots in the rape scenes). The storytelling is unconventional and the use of some characters as narrators apart from the main storyline give richness to the story. We get suspense, violence, dramatic and feel-good scenes throughout the entire movie.

The themes presented are human relationships and how they remain the same although we cannot see each others differences. Some people try to control others and others gather to live better. The politics where the government handles disasters in a not humanly way. Also when humans don't have the power to do something they understand more how is to live without a disability. The movie as well as the novel is a critique on the human flaws that divide us and make us vulnerable when major things occur.

This movie was very under looked in this past film award season because of the social commentary or the artsy way Meirelles presented it. But it was a good flick, well acted, written and directed, that can make us think about life and the course that has taken civilization.