Je ne vois que toi

Marc Forster has delivered some decent big budget films in the past, like World War Z and Quantum of Solace, but All I See is You is smaller and a less epic offering. The story is an interesting one, a woman who has been blind for a long time has a procedure to get her eyesight back. The recovery period is long but ultimately successful in helping her gain her eyesight back, but she slowly starts realizing her life is not at all what it seems.

I thought the cast did a fine job, Blake Lively played a blind woman quite well and Jason Clarke played her supportive yet angry husband.

The problem with this movie is that nothing really happens, it tried to hit the viewer with a couple twists but those ultimately fell flat. Another problem was that it tried to use sex to further the narrative but that really just got in the way and felt forced. Maybe Marc was trying to distract the viewer with sex so they don't realize his movie is boring. A sort of plus was the handful of cool visuals that were scattered throughout the film, I won't tell you what they are because I don't really know how to explain them and if you choose to see it, I don't want to give anything away.

My Suggestion: See it if you like Blake Lively or Jason Clarke enough to sit through a boring movie starring them.

Seen at TIFF 2016.

I only came to the knowledge of this film's existence by browsing through Blake Lively's IMDB page, and was frankly shocked to see the unbelievably low number of votes (in the 600s at this time). Even more so, I was flabbergasted when I saw that this film carries a production budget of $30M and only managed less than $1M in its limited theatrical run. Usually these numbers indicate a huge bomb caused by universal dislike from the critics and the general audience, but judging by the ridiculously small amount of votes here, the complete lack of exposure of any kind it indicates, and the mediocre scores, this is also not the case. Curious, I watched this film, and now I think I can see why.

All I See Is You is an underwhelming film with a weak story and is also a creative misfire, in the sense that it does not present itself in any way as a coherent package with a clearly defined target audience. As a drama film, the film's mainstream appeal is clearly far from wide, and it isn't anywhere close to being experimental or avant-garde (not to mention no sane producer/investor would greenlight a arthouse production at even 1/10 of the budget of this one).

Narratively the story is loosely written with a slow pace (especially in the beginning) that doesn't allow the film to gather much momentum. When the screen isn't showing you a scene that's clearly a part of the main storyline, I couldn't even ascertain if what I was watching was going to be developed into a subplot, or if it's just a random scene depicting a random minutiae that fills the screen time. I did not watch this movie expecting that I'd be hugely entertained, but it should have been obvious to the filmmakers that intercutting narratively unimportant scenes with random flashbacks is clearly insufficient to keep the audience interested, when the main storyline is so thin. When moments of drama finally arrive, they lack the originality, or the creative punch that comes with a well thought-out, well executed plot point, to really surprise and satisfy viewers. There's hardly any momentum building as the story progresses, which explains the lack of tension I felt when the film reached its supposed climax.

Visually, this film simply contains too many shots where the cinematographer seems to be trying very hard to bring to the screen the blind girl's view of the world, all in a very impressionist and therefore distracting manner. In my opinion this was overkill, and it ended up creating an overall look that's more gimmicky than beautiful.

It also conveyed a sense of alienation to me, as it made me want to talk to the screen, 'hey, I'm not blind, that's why I'm watching this, so could you please stop showing me what the world may seem from the blind girl's perspective (not to mention that that perspective should be pitch blackness if she was really blind) show me something that's actually interesting, like the actual story.'

Instead, one can edit out all the shots of this type in this film, put them together, and you'd get a fine contender for "32 potentially interesting short clips for my Windows OS screensaver" or "video to play on the big screen at a Blur concert". It wears off rather quickly and becomes tedious after the initial novelty. I also find that parts of the soundtrack to be at odds to what the scenes were trying to portray.

With a medium sized budget for a drama film at $30M (which means the producers were obviously expecting a wide theatrical release and for the film to not be a flop for that kind of release, in order to stand a chance at turning a profit), some of these creative decisions are simply baffling.

In fact, you can go check the production budget for most of 2017's Oscar bait films, like 3 Billboards, Lady Bird, The Shape of Water etc, and these films all have roughly the same level of production budget as All I See Is You. It really is mind-boggling. I'm not saying the end product is too generic. In fact, I do suspect that, had the film been made in a more by-the-book standard Hollywood fashion, it likely would have gotten a better result.

Well, it can hardly get worse than the current situation, where the box office is practically negligible against the costs. I still find it really hard to believe the number of votes here, which suggests that practically nobody except those who literally came across it/stumbled upon it have seen this, which is quite ridiculous, and as a Blake Lively fan, I don't even know how she would feel about accepting this role as the follow up to 2016's surprise hit The Shallows.

I get it that the very idea of 'what if a blind girl recovers her sight somehow, and discovers that the world isn't quite as she thought it was' is a novel one and has potential, but that idea ALONE can only support a short film, granted it can be a very interesting 15 minute vignette if done well. The filmmakers simply failed to expand on the central premise here, and what we get is a feature length film that is a bore to sit through.

All I see is a film school thesis movie that should have been failed and forgotten. Instead, the director's lust for Blake Lively led to a near pornographic experience that lacks any satisfaction

Time to tell you how bad this film is. I didn't know much about it but I really like Blake Lively. Ever since the Gossip Girl days I've been interested in seeing more of her. The Shallows might be ridiculous at times but she's good in it and does show effort to her role. The same can be said for her commitment to this film, however its a shame everything else about this film lets her down. Its definitely a "what the hell did I just watch" film.

The film is about a woman who is blind and has surgery to repair her vision. Once this happens her husband starts realizing that she knows about how attractive and appealing she is and becomes concerned with their marriage falling apart and her being pulled out towards other relationships. That's really whats going on. Along the way she starts losing her sight again along with her relationship. And then there's a what the heck moment with an incredibly stupid ending.

The film does a good job of portraying eye popping visuals for what Lively's character sees when she is blind. The foggy, ever changing, and almost psychedelic visuals of her vision are quite nice to look at. As mentioned earlier Lively is good in this, but everyone in this film is unlikable. Lively's character isn't worth redeeming, Jason Clarke' s character is mysterious, like was he even good or bad? There's a lot of weird awkward moments dialogues about dicks and a very weirdly creepy brother in law. Yikes.

I want to say there was potential here but about twenty minutes in you realize that its just wasted time. I want to see Lively in something better with a good filmmaker to bat. This is just a frustratingly bad experience because we have a frustrating director at the helm. Its quite stupid at times, you may want to check it out to see if you can form a different more positive opinion about it. Honestly though, its better to not "see" this one.

5/10

"All I See Is You" (2017 release; 110 min.) brings the story of Gina and James, a married couple. As the movie opens, we are told it's "Bangkok, Thailand", and the couple is making love, trying to conceive. In the next few moments, we understand that Gina is legally blind, following a horrific car crash. She can't see more than a blur of light (and the camera shows us what that's like). But then, wonderful news! The eye car clinic tells her they can restore sight to her right eye. After the operation, Gina indeed gains eyesight. But now problems arise in the marriage nevertheless (or because so?). At this point we are 15 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from director Mark Forster, who previously brought us "Moster's Ball" and "World War Z", among others. Here he goes in in different direction: what is life like when you unexpectedly regain your eyesight? and how does it affect personal relationships? The movie leaves us guessing for a long time how it really is unfolding, and that's fine. The first part of the movie focuses on the sensation of regaining eyesight ("I just want to see colors", says Gina), while the second part focuses on the marriage issues between Gina and James (sorry, can't say more so as not to spoil), Blake Lively, whom we saw lat year in "Cafe Society" and the far better than expected "The Shallows", takes the movie on her shoulders and is absolutely tops. Jason Clark as the husband is fine. The movie's photography is eye-candy. I've never been to Bangkok and didn't quite realize how sophisticated a metropolis it is. The scenes in southern Spain and in Barcelona are equally eye-candy.

"All I See Is You" premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, yes, over a year ago. No idea why it has taken this long to finally get a proper theater release. The movie opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, and I couldn't wait to see it. The Saturday evening screening where I saw this at was attended so-so (about 10 people in total) and that is not a good sign. I can only speak for myself obviously, but I quite enjoyed this psychological marriage drama, even if things (or perhaps just because) aren't always quite clear. I'd suggest you check this out, be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.