By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net

WHAT if blindness is an infectious disease that is contagious as the common cold?

This is the basic storyline–adapted from a novel by Nobel prize-winning author Jose Saramago–behind the latest film from rising Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener, City of God).

Don’t expect this to be something like “Outbreak”, though. There’s no use getting engrossed so much in how an antidote is discovered in the end. No other animal even appears in the movie except for a dog.

The only animals in this case are humans, and “Blindness” explores how they behave when deprived of their ability to see. Those infected with the “white disease” (for lack of a scientific term) are quarantined.

Julianne Moore plays the doctor’s wife–all characters in the movie carry no names—who finds herself the only person not infected and therefore, can see clearly even though she throws herself in the quarantine in order to be with her husband (played by a bloated Mark Ruffalo).

Moore’s character is obviously the emotional anchor of the movie. In the land of the blind they say, the one-eyed person is King. In her case, she becomes a reluctant queen, faced with survival issues after a rival group takes control of food supply.

The entire length of the film is bathing in darkness and Moore’s character is obviously made to stand out with her freckled complexion and light-colored clothing.

She is, after all, the only one in her group who can see. In time, they are able to break free from prison only to find out the entire population has gone blind and the entire world in shambles.

Overall, it is an interesting premise, and at best thought-provoking play on darkness and light, which can be credited to its director.

The story’s progression, though, disappoints in moments of logical ambiguities – such as why Moore’s character was powerless when in fact she is the only who can see.

View the film’s trailer here: