Two very different movies

Last night I watched Blindness, the film adaption of José Saramago's novel Essay on Blindness. Julianne Moore stars as the wife of an opthamologist in a world where everyone suddenly goes blind.

It reminded me somewhat of Dogville and for a moment of Memento, but while all explore breakdowns in the order of things, Blindness is far more optimistic. There's a key scene in the beginning of Blindness when Moore's character wonders if agnosia--a neurological condition in which people are unable to identify objects--and agnosticism share a common etymology. I'd like to see the movie again to catch exactly what she says, but she wonders aloud about the role of faith in our everyday perception of life. How much and what do we have to believe in the world around us in order to experience it?

It was ambiguous to me whether she was speaking about faith in God or faith in ourselves--i.e. humanity--and I saw evidence for both possibilities as the film unfolded. Ultimately, the film for me was about losing and regaining faith.

It was rough to watch at moments, and I definitely would have acted against one particular antagonist a lot sooner than Moore's character did! In the end though, a very interesting and thought-provoking movie.

AND TODAY I SAW DISNEY AND PIXAR'S NEW FILM UP. It was a delight to watch but at moments unusually sad for an animated film (my friend Jill remarked at one point, "Jesus, am I going to have to cry in my 3D glasses???").

Definitely worth watching. But it's Blindness that I'd watch again. I found an interesting blog post on it here.