Blindness

Saw Blindness. The premise is that the whole world is going blind due to some mysterious contagion. The only person to be mysteriously unaffected is the wife of an eye doctor. Before the disease, she is shown drinking too much wine which, coupled with her lily-white-ness and opulent surroundings, is meant to convey a listless existence. She is busybodyish and patronizing when her husband goes blind. She is a woman living an empty life in shorthand. Later, as she becomes one of the few and then the only person left with sight, her life becomes fuller than she can possibly cope with.

The film also follows the larger breakdown of society, lingering over the chosen compassionate few who are the protagonists. Others descend into feudal states and shambling, zombie-like aggression. I am tempted to accuse this film of left-wing political pandering. The clear-eyed white woman leads a multi-ethnic band of survivors out of the wilderness and into suburban paradise. I seriously don't think that this is even remotely what the film was going for, but the reading is there and if you're in a mood to piss off someone who's just seen this film, there ya go.

Unfortunately, if we abandon the above talking-point, the film doesn't supply much else. There's some late-stage religious talk but this is the background ravings of a madman (he claims the blindness is a punishment from god. I chalk this up to world-building more than theme-establishment.) The quest of survival of our heroes is captivating and the film itself is beautiful but there's no specific theme I can grab hold of. There is of course the implicit theme of story-as-life-metaphor, with the characters' struggle for survival mirroring our own daily struggle for food, entertainment, and enlightenment (and this I think is where the film's heart lies) but few specifics. And anyway what of that? The film has complete won me over and I think it's great. There's a scene where the protagonists and all of the other blind dance in the rain, bathing and catching rainwater. What need have we of a metaphor slathered on top of that?

The film is completely condemnation-free. It portrays all villains not as evil but as merely uninformed or desperate. The rival hordes of blind people are often nude. Far from making them seem insane, this nudity makes them seem vulnerable and exposed, needing shelter and comfort. We feel for the increasingly weary protagonist woman. She cannot feed and clothe the whole world and even her little microcosm may be too much. It's great stuff. Sort of an adventure story told as a romance. The film is both beautiful and interesting. What it lacks in trenchant social commentary it makes up for with sensual aesthetics and kindness. A lovely, lovely film.

Edit: This film apparently has a reputation for being depressing. This is absurd and vile slander spread by empty-headed consumers of sensational pablum who fundamentally hate films the way junkies hate their heroin. This film bravely faces the ugly sides of humanity with compassion and mercy and is therefore one of the more hopeful films I've seen in a while.