Sheta Kaey
Uma Thurman is extraordinary as a club girl looking for a Mr. Right -- *any* Mr. Right (or even Mr. Okay For Now). She debases herself awkwardly and willingly in repeated pathetic attempts to get guys to like her, and they smell her desperation a mile away. She shyly volunteers that she gives good head, for instance, and her offer is accepted repeatedly, while between encounters she's got the stink of something best left outside -- and so she is. Her need for acceptance appears driven by a deeper need for respect, for the recognition that she is worthy of more than service as a convenient warm body. It's a heart wrenching performance, and one that I recognized to the core of me from my own club days, during the times of my life when I was so lonely that I couldn't even *fake* self-respect convincingly.I was torn between wanting to shake her and wanting to hold her. Her role strikes a bullseye for anyone who has ever needed a kind word and received only derision.
triple8
SPOILERS THROUGHOUT: I knew I'd love Hysterical Blindness and recently had a chance to see it. I liked it even more then expected. A brilliant movie and a job well done from the whole cast.Pretty much everyone knows the plot but....I will say watching this movie, I was struck with how much was gotten so right. I love character studies and love independent films because their often not afraid to take chances as are many, more mainstream movies. They are often more accurate As well.Everyone in this movie exists-somewhere in this world. Movies that capture the humanness of everyday people and environments, deserve kudos because it is not often when that happens. Hysterical Blindness could function as a very long advertisement to someone about the negatives of the bar scene and the movie is almost emotionally brutal in the way it picks up the quiet weariness some of these people feel. The writing is just superb and I really wish This had been a big screen release and am sure a few Oscars would have been picked up along the way.All the performers were outstanding. Uma Thurman was BETTER then in the kill bill movies (yes, it's true) and Gena Rowlands and Juliette Lewis were outstanding. Oh how I adored the gentle dreamer Nick! (played brilliantly by Ben Gazzara). Thurman's playing down of her looks still did not disguise the fact that she is a beautiful woman but that did not, for me, lessen the believability one bit. As many know, the fact that one is extremely Goodlooking does not mean they cannot experience emotional pain in relationships. I found not one false note in this movie and I found Hysterical Blindness to be just incredible.This is probably one of the most honest movies about suburban single life I've ever seen and it actually makes the movie "Singles" look like a light Rom com. I'm always struck by movies that are like a little( or big) slice of life. In that regard, Hysterical Blindness is at the top of the heap. my rating is 9 of 10.
octomancer
I rate this highly 'cos of the performances of Thurman and Lewis. They were absolutely outstanding. I take on board the comments about the dodgy accents, music, anachronistic details, but they don't matter to 99% of the people who watch. The characterisations were great! Even if they didn't leave you precisely where intended, they were consistent and you could buy into them.I really like the comment here to the effect that the film would have some merit if the characters achieved even a hint of self-awareness by the end of the film. This is an important point, and I would agree whole-heartedly if the film had a different title. The title is all that's needed to give this film perspective, to place it specifically and allow it to be what it is without reference to the frame that gives it meaning.
benymil
Movies have made us believe or want to make us believe that "special people" or "special events" are what is worth showing or telling while in reality, we all, the non-heroes, the gray people of the world, live our day-to-day life and deal with our day-to-day problems and the way to cope with that reality is what this film is all about.Uma Thurman and Gena Rowlands are both great by depicting normal people. Not super heroes.So is no-questions-asked friend Juliette Lewis. Pity that both men, Justin Chambers and Ben Gazzara look so superficial and hollow.The greatness of the film is, again, translating a day-to-day situation, we can all pass, into a flawless flow of events which are a lot easier for the viewer to recognize as flaws that to the people in the screen. I just wish we could see ourselves as we can see the actors.
AD
