Very disappointed :(

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

It was an absolute disappointment for me. I really liked reading the book and may be one of my favorites. However while watching the movie I could't find what I was looking for, not just a bit..

Blindness (2008), directed by Fernando Meirelles, is an adaptation of José Saramago's novel Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira that tells the story of a society that falls victim to a sudden surge of blindness. The film is an extraordinary adaptation. It pictures a lot of the details of the book, such as places and scenes that are fundamental to the plot.The where and when the story happens is not mentioned and to express this idea in the film the director made a great choice by mixing elements of various nationalities. The language used is English, but the license plates look similar to Brazilian plates, the images of the city are taken from cities from different countries and the cast is really diverse. Also, none of the characters has a name, and fortunately this wasn't modified in the movie. As a great fan of the novel, these were the first details that I was expecting to see because they create the perfect atmosphere to the plot. Speaking of plot, just a few things were changed and it didn't bring any harm to the original story. While I was watching, I started to remember certain scenes from the novel and I was trying to imagine how these scenes would be portrayed in the film. I wasn't disappointed at all. Of course some parts were left out, but it wasn't a great loss, they were well adapted to be shorter than the novel. I've seen some negative reviews talking about how the film can cause a bad feeling to the audience, but I can't see how this is a bad thing, because that is exactly the purpose of the whole story. It is to cause discomfort, to show the reality we could live. The graphic scenes can be too strong to the more sensitive but they were unavoidable. All I can say is that Blindness is a well made adaptation that doesn't disappoint those who read the novel. The direction is brilliant, the actors are great and the story is told in full. Even if you didn't read the novel, it is a great way to meet José Saramago's brilliant work.

Reading the book by Jose Saramago, one of the first things that struck me was the dark tone with which the story was developed. To me, one of the main points of Saramago's writing in this case is making you feel as blind as his characters; you don't know their names, their past, what exactly is happening to them or why. In this sense, it was hard for me to imagine this story being told in a media that relies so much on the visual aspects of a narrative as the cinema. Part of what made possible for me to put myself into the shoes of the characters and, consequently, relate with some of them, was being in the dark with them, having nothing but my imagination to rely on. Watching the movie, however, I was rather surprised by the final result. I had already watched City of God, so I knew how good Fernando Meirelles was, but, given the circumstances, I was trying not to expect too much from this movie in particular. Nevertheless, the choices made by the director made all the difference. After all, he focuses on another idea present in the book to convey the same message, which is that, even though the whole country is going blind, one of the main characters (Julianne Moore) isn't. So, to me, the movie puts you in her place; it makes you able to see in a world where everyone has gone blind. The only time you can't see what's happening is when she is in the dark. Rather than not being able to see, our biggest curse ends up being the very opposite, which is being able to see so many bad things with tied hands. This is what sets the tone to the movie and, in my opinion, one of its greatest achievements. On another note, Julianne Moore's amazing performance creates an antithetic feeling in the audience, some kind of painful hope. If, on the one hand, we are forced to see things the way she does, and she is the one whose hope is the most powerful, on the other hand, we know that we can't go back in time, and that everything that was done will remain in the memories of those affected by it. The photography is both beautiful and brutal at the same time, and the usage of very bright scenes which blur our vision for some seconds is yet another positive point of this adaptation. It conveys the idea that the white blindness might be seen as a metaphor for a kind of "image overdose" as the one discussed by Jonathan Crary (2016) in his book entitled 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep ("With an infinite cafeteria of solicitation and attraction perpetually available, 24/7 disables vision through processes of homogenization, redundancy, and acceleration.", claims the author). In fact, if you watch the documentary by Brazilian directors João Jardim and Walter Carvalho entitled Janela da Alma (The Window of the Soul), you may realize that it was possibly Saramago's idea from the beginning. More than respectful to the source story, the movie rewrites it with a new perspective while keeping untouched all important events. It's a movie worth watching whether you have read the book or not (even though I definitely recommend that you check the book out) and a piece of art which stands in its own merits.

This movie is horrible the fact that the Main character can see and she still Let's woman get raped The only emotion that comes from this junk Is how one person can justify the suffering of oths Rape scene is hilarious with a bunch of People clinking there walking stick into the wall Love the idiots that say others didn't get the point of this movie. The plot holes are way to many for this movie to watchable What kind of horrible person would allow this to go on when she has the ability to stop it Biggest insult was The idea that an already blind man is any different, was to funny. Try not to laugh at the blind people in this movie to much all just hilarious