Blindness (2008)

Now, THIS is a movie! Bleak and scary, with little respite from hopelessness, this fable drags you into its world. (Don't bring the kids nor your troubles from home.) The cinematography, by César Charlone (who also collaborated with director Fernando Meirelles on City of God and The Constant Gardener), the editing, and, one would presume, the director's vision, combine to give a surrealistic look that I recommend you see on the biggest screen you can. It features an international ensemble cast in an unnamed city which I think is mostly São Paolo, Brazil (the director's home) though locations are also listed as Montevideo, Uruguay (the cinematographer's home), Toronto, and Guelph, Canada. Screenplay writer Don McKellar shows up in the first sequence and makes a difference throughout. So many production companies (13) were listed in the opening I was sure we'd have a new Producers Plethora Prize, but 15 is no longer a winner. I mentioned Diva (1981) in my earlier review of Roman de Gare. I loved Diva for many reasons, including imaginative cinematography comparable to Blindness, but one more reason was its use of source music. In Diva, the stolen recording of the opera singer would fill the theatre before being scaled back to reveal that a character was playing a tape in his car. In Blindness, Danny Glover's character played a song on his radio, and it was uplifting for me as well as the characters on the screen. Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Alice Braga, Gael Garcìa Bernal, and Maury Chaykin head the cast of this top-notch, difficult movie.