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Thursday, 14 February 2008 |
Sydney Wells has been blind for about 20 years and she seems to be fairing pretty well with it but when her sister sets up a corneal transplant for her she gains the ability to see…dead people.
I know you’re shocked. Who has ever heard of a horror movie where someone can see dead people? Sydney (Jessica Alba) has been blinded since the age of five from a firecracker display gone awry.
Since then she has been doing quite well, establishing herself as a prominent concert violinist.
Her guilt ridden sister, Helen (Parker Posey), sets up for her to receive the corneal transplant as she
feels responsible for her sister’s blindness. The transplant just happens to be from a Hispanic woman
who committed suicide after leading a very torture life.
Once the bandages are removed, Sydney has a blurry vision of the world around her and glimpses of a
world she is not supposed to see.
As she tries to establish between reality and her imagination she expresses her fears and experiences
with her vision therapist, Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola). Faulkner just assures her that she is
crazy and to get over it. Did I mention that he plays a very convincing doctor?
Finally he comes to believe her and the duo head it out to Sydney’s donor’s hometown in Mexico to try
to figure out why she keeps having the disturbing visions.
This film was a very sad take on yet another originally successful Japanese horror flick. The story was
pieced together and very poorly acted.
Alba does a great job of being very pretty while being scared but the acting is so poorly done that
pretty just doesn’t cut it. It seems as though Alba spent about 24 hours with a blind person and noted
two or three habits they have and relied on that with hopes that it would be convincing enough to pull of
the role…it didn’t work.
Posey is weepy and pathetic throughout her small part in the film and just drops out of the plot line with
no explanation. She seems very unconcerned with the fact that her sister is dealing with such a
serious surgery.
Nivola definitely pulled off the worst role in the film however. His character is basically an oxymoron, a
therapist who could not care less what his patients have to say. He maintains his jerky persona
throughout only redeeming himself by providing the donor name and driving Sydney to Mexico.
This movie is just as bad as it looks. I am chalking it up to the beginning of the year slump and hoping
that the horror genre picks up over the coming months. I wouldn’t suggest this for your Valentine’s
date. It may get you cuddling closer as the loud noises scare your date but it will leave you bitter of the
$17 plus you forked out for cinematic junk.
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