DVD review (region 1 & 2)
Directed by Fernando Meirelles
Starring Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Alice Braga, Gael Garcia Bernal, Danny Glover
Release date Out now

Residents of an unnamed city become afflicted by a sudden, mysterious blindness. The blind are herded into an internment camp, which soon descends into mob rule and chaos…

This adaptation of José Saramago’s revered novel is far more compelling than some of the muted reviews would have you believe. Many critics and viewers were frustrated by the lack of explanation (including why Julianne Moore is the only person to retain her sight) and the slightly gimmicky notion of holding back names for characters (one of Saramago’s recurring tricks). Perhaps part of the problem is also that this isn’t quite a SF movie or a realistic drama, with Meirelles following Saramago's lead in using the high-concept premise to examine the fragility of society.

The result is a bold and powerful movie that works both as a paranoid drama (fitting in with other panicky titles of recent years such as Right at Your Door and The Signal, which all take a big cue from zombie flicks) and as a thoughtful meditation on human nature. As the blindness disease sweeps through the unnamed city, it isn’t long before panic replaces rationality and polite society descends into fighting over the meagre resources left. Sex is exchanged for food, violence erupts and people realise they’ve never really ‘seen’ each other before. It’s bleak stuff, yet the disease isn’t entirely without its plus points, giving everyone a newfound equality regardless of their age, wealth or race.

Merailles invests all of this with an evocative, dreamy atmosphere, the screen often bursting with overexposed white light, while Ruffalo and Moore (as ‘The Doctor’ and ‘The Doctor’s Wife’), convey the very personal impact of the epidemic. It’s not always easy viewing, but this is one of 2008’s most underrated movies.

The DVD comes with an excellent lengthy ‘making of’ that’s shot with the same dreamy atmosphere as the movie itself. Early on, Fernando Meirelles lets us know that his greatest fear of making the movie is that Saramago won’t like it. There’s a tense moment at the end of the documentary when Meirelles and Saramago are sitting next to each other in a screening as the credits roll. Meirelles looks nervously across at the elderly Saramago, the author’s face as inscrutable as ever. “You don’t have to say anything,” Meirelles assures him. Then, suddenly Saramago quietly croaks, “Fernando I feel so happy you made this. I feel like I did when I finished writing the novel.” A clearly relieved Merailles kisses Saramago on the head: it’s a strangely moving little moment. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 8/10
Turn a blind eye to the naysayers: this is a haunting modern fable.

Click here to read the original cinema review.