I’d heard that the book Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira was going to adapted into a film and wondered how they were going to translate blindness, which is more aptly experienced through reading, onto the big screen. I felt it was done quite well, even though we could see almost everything going on when the characters became blind (some scenes were intentionally fuzzy or in pitch black). The cacophony of cars in traffic, doors being opened, and dishes clinking were amplified throughout the film, giving the audience the heightened sensation of sound that a blind person might have. I thought this effect was very well done, being a person whose nerves get easily jangled by constant loud noises.

Julianne Moore shows us more of her acting chops and why she’s not a regular Hollywood A-lister, as the only person who can see in a filthy quarantined ward. The breakdown the social norms and rules in the ward is a concept found in many stories, such as Lord of the Flies, where people left to fend for themselves ultimately resort to their basest instincts and selfish need to survive. I felt this was achieved quite well in Blindness and was not overtly didactic.

Blindness, however, is the overarching theme in the movie. Were the whole world to lose the ability to see, what would change? Would we choose who we befriend, love, and hate differently? Would we “see”, but in a different capacity? And for those who are not able to re-evaluate their decisions and prejudices, will they ever truly “see”? These are important questions, but the storyline tends to lose itself in them and muddles its way to a fairly lighthearted ending.