Fernando Meirelles directed a great film, Cidade de Deus "City of God". It is a moving, sometimes shocking exploration into environment and character. It is a reminder of the power of cinema and is one of the best movies I've ever seen.

This ain't City of God.

The first act of this film about a plague that blinds its victims is wonderfully constructed and executed. Merielles' stark visuals and thoughtful scenes develop the paranoia, isolation and fear that comes with of the uncontrollable threat of disease. A virus blinds its victims and one by one people are left stumbling around town, crashing their cars and getting lost in their own homes. Before too long the government steps in an quarantines the victims in an abandoned mental hospital. One of the victims "Doctor" (Mark Ruffalo) is an optomistrist who loses his sight early on. His wife, aptly named "Doctor's Wife" is immune to the disease. She can see. She pretends to be blind so she can keep tabs on and help her love. Its at this point things hit a big, unmovable wall.

While instituationalized, it becomes clear that the outside world is falling apart, but things aren't much better inside. The blind prisoners wander the halls naked, filth and execement smudge the floors and trash lines the rooms. Their life in squalor and fear gets worse when the food shipments stop coming. A group of thugs, who live on the first floor of the building, take over the food supply and demand payment for it from the other residnets. They back up their demand with a gun and the fact that one of their members has been blind his whole life. Unlike everyone else, he is used to being blind uses his experience to control others.




The story descends into a confusing, unpleansant mess at this point because once the thugs take all of the trinkets and property from the rest of the asylum they then demand the women. The women in the asylum submit so people can eat. What follows is a disturbing rape sequence where the women are brutally victimized, one even dies. Meirelles doesn't descend to showing much but the audio and shadows of women being raped isn't something most people want to sit through. The point is made without forcing the audience to experience it. What is so frustrating about the whole situation is that the lead, Doctor's Wife (Julianne Moore) IS NOT BLIND. In the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is king. In this case she's queen. She has the ability to put an end to the conflict at any time. She can see and the thugs can't. She allows herself and others to be raped. She allows for people to live in squalor. We're not given solid reasons for her choices, other than it all goes to feed the film's overall symbolism. The problem is that symbolism doesn't outmatch logic. Her failure to act makes her, the heroine, as evil as the villains.

Eventually, Doctor's Wife does confront the thugs, after the thugs have visited every possible evil on the rest of the people in the asylum. She burns the place down and leads the residents out on the streets. There things are better but they're left to scavange along with everyone else. After a while, and some minor conflicts, everyone regains their sight. End of story.

Sound stupid?

It is.




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Short Cuts (1993)


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Labels: Alice Braga, Danny Glover, film, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, movie review