RECOMMENDED
Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles’ third feature, after “City of God” and “The Constant Gardener,” attempts something implausible: using a visual medium (with only a few seconds’ darkness in a single scene) to portray a world where a virus causes blindness and quickly reduces civilization to chaos. But another reading, drawing on Meirelles’ own substantial background as a South American who’s helped shape that continent’s film, television and advertising world, would suggest that the blindness is more about a clash between individualism and shared responsibilities of society. The figures dancing on the wall of Plato’s cave are barbaric, seeking victims. Adapted from Nobelist Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago’s novel by Canadian Don McKellar, “Blindness”‘ consistently, insistently displays a perspective not seen in U. S. productions where one hero must save all, who claims the good of all for his own glory. Neither mavericks nor self-described mavericks, the characters that work toward good in “Blindness” worry about the world and what world comes tomorrow. The final shot, seemingly in glaucous white void, tilts down to reveal something optimistic: an emblem of the necessary survival of life on earth. Simple means, as with a few brilliant passages amid the cruelty on show. The indignities may be visualized with inappropriate panache, as may well be claimed of “City of God,” but the underlying sentiment has been obscured by many reviews. With Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Alice Braga, Danny Glover, Sandra Oh, Don McKellar, Gael Garcia Bernal, Maury Chaykin. 120m. (Ray Pride)
