Je ne vois que toi

"All I See Is You" is a film that left me a tad disappointed. The idea for the story was very good but at times the execution seemed a bit flat....and the cinematographic trick seemed overused.

The story is oddly set in Thailand...and I really was never sure why a blind American woman would live in such a world. I have nothing against Thailand or any other country....but it did seem odd she would live in such a difficult place in which she could become acclimated due to the language and culture. It would be difficult enough to live her life in a more familiar setting. Regardless, she lives with her husband and her life seems good. But after she receives eye surgery and her vision is restored, the marriage begins to show a lot of problems....and how the husband responds to it is quite strange....but interesting.

The film wasn't bad at all and the notion of eye surgery actually resulting in a marital breakdown is fascinating. The Iranian director, Majid Majidi did a brilliant film about this ("The Willow Tree"). But here it seemed as if the film had two problems. First, to simulate the woman's vision, we often saw distorted views of the world...and this seemed overused and gimmicky. Second, some of the film seemed unnecessarily crude and rather gross. A but more subtlety would have made for a better story. Still, it is interesting and you won't hate it....but it so easily could have been a bit better.

Producer, director, writer Marc Forster is best known for directing the films Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, The Kite Runner, Quantum of Solace and World War Z wrote this screenplay with Sean Conway (TV series Ray Donavan and Shameless). ALL I SEE IS YOU is a theme with challenge to any writer: these tow men almost meet that challenge but seem to get lost in the process. The result is a very long, tedious, cinematographer's holiday (Matthias Koenigswieser) about the world we see and the world we don't see. Despite the presence of some fine actors the film is tedious and loses the audience after about thirty minutes of blurry (but colorful!) versions of the world passing by the eyes of a blind girl.

Apparently blinded since childhood when a hideous car-crash cost her her parents and her eyesight (a fact that is never explained - we must guess that is the case), beautiful Gina (Blake Lively) scarcely leaves their home in Bangkok, Thailand and is dependent on her attentive and doting husband, James (Jason Clark), who is her everything: her protector, her guide, and the sole intermediary with the outside world and who has never known the sighted Gina, and wants to make a baby. Medicine intervenes, a cutting-edge but highly experimental cornea transplant By one Dr. Hughes (Danny Huston) promises to restore Gina's vision, at least to her right eye--and when the bandages come off all of a sudden unexplored colors and senses begin to appear to her. But she is dependent on steroid drops in her eyes to assure the transplant takes. As a result, Gina will see her husband and her unknown reflection in the mirror for the first time, she befriends an unwanted dog, makes friends with dog walker cum sensual interest (Wes Chatham), and with time and some distance from James and an odd visit to her Barcelona sister Carla (Ahna O'Reilly) and her artsy husband Ramon (Miquel Fernández) Gina becomes pregnant (though James has discovered he is sterile!), and her vision is altered again - the reason is only suggested. And then the film ends.

Chunks of the story are missing (?intentionally?) and the constant cinematic version of the world through near blind eyes becomes as tiring to the audience as it must to the patient with altered eyesight. There are some odd sidebars of Gina playing the guitar with a young girl, surreal shots of Bangkok, strange S&M scenes unexplained that keep our attention at times. The concept regarding blindness and how it affects the victim are sound. It is the delivery of the 'story' that begs editing.

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

Greetings again from the darkness. Director Marc Forster has crafted a career of making movies that are readily watchable, though for the most part, not especially memorable. These include: FINDING NEVERLAND, STRANGER THAN FICTION, QUANTUM OF SOLACE, WORLD WAR Z, and his best film, MONSTER'S BALL (2001). His latest falls short of those, but thanks to Blake Lively and some creative visuals, we remain interested enough.

This is Ms. Lively's follow up to last year's surprise summer hit THE SHALLOWS, her nearly one-woman sea-based spectacle. This time out she does an admirable job of carrying the film in spite of script flaws. It's co-written by Sean Conway and director Forster, and despite teasing some fascinating psychological aspects, we find ourselves constantly waiting for the movie to show us what we already know is about to happen. Predictability is rarely an asset for a film, and here it acts as a ball and chain to the pacing.

The first third of the film works to establish two things: what Gina's (Lively) daily life is like as a blind person, and the type of relationship she and her husband (Jason Clarke) have. We get an abundance of distorted light flashes to simulate what she has lived with since the car accident that took away her parents and her vision during childhood. Her marriage finds her very dependent on her husband and Clarke's character thrives on this … even giving brief glimpses of his demented personality that will eventually take over the film in the final act.

Gina's doctor (Danny Huston) performs a transplant which successfully restores her vision. The bulk of the story revolves around the changes that vision brings to her life and how the marriage begins disintegrating. The best message here is what happens to a relationship as the individuals change and evolve. Specifically in this case, the wife gains an entirely new perspective, while the husband longs for the days where she was dependent on him.

At times it feels as if director Forster is working hard to create the look and feel of an experimental movie, rather than focusing on the story. There are some interesting visuals provided by locations and camera angles, although the moody atmosphere never really clicks. Ms. Lively singing "Double Dutch" provides an ending that is both odd and mesmerizing in a strange way. We are reminded that evil and self-centeredness can take on many forms, though this film never quite packs the dramatic punch it should.

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.