'Blindness' is nothing close to the novel

Blindness
Cast: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Alice Braga
Director: Fernando Meireilles
Rating: **1/2

Jose Saramago’s novel finds visual expression in Fernando Meirelles’ Blindness. But the 1998 Nobel prize winner is not likely to be satisfied with Meirelles’ craft. The film does not even manage to achieve half of what Saramago achieved with his resonant and haunting prose.

The premise is simple. What happens when an entire city is afflicted by an epidemic of white blindness? The usual precautions and quarantines are an integral part of the story. The plot concerns itself with highlighting the degenerating state of the 'prison' which the afflicted find themselves in. Merielles tries his best to convey the depth of the problem. But the gimmicks he employs fail to convince.

In fact, the narrative unfolds in a manner that is overwhelmingly showy but there's no conviction to go with it. The pace is also quite sluggish. Daniel Rezende's editing is certainly several notches below what he achieved in City of God.

Mereilles by way of Cesar Charlone's cinematography, floods the screen with white from time to time and sometimes even shrouds his characters in the milky overflow.

Those visuals though deliberate and a definite attempt at aesthetic, are quite exasperating. The entire rendition appears stagey and full of artifice. In fact Merielles fails to convey the philosophical bent that Saramago's prose revels in.