My Blind Brother

Not a bad idea (how often are the disabled looked at with anything other than the most uncritical of perspectives, especially in our current cultural climate of moralistically competitive victim-hood?) but unfortunately done with a directorial hand which betrays a lack of confidence and maturity...yes we get the point, the blind brother is a jerk, the younger brother is a victim, the parents are insensitive, on and on and on...all the "good" characters act nervous/neurotic and/or self-hating...such is "authenticity" in America in this day and age I guess.

(The film explores the dynamics between two brothers the older(?) of whom is blind (caused by accident induced by his younger brother who then "naturally" has spent his life feeling guilty), the disabled sibling deals with his sense of powerlessness and purposelessness in life by doing charity athletic events to raise money for visually- impaired children, but he requires his younger brother (who hates athletics) to accompany him on his runs/swims/etc. to guide him. The parents, quite naturally, show concern only for the emotional needs of the disabled sibling and seem to be deaf and dumb to even overt psychological abuse of the younger sibling by the older).

The younger one has a chance hookup with a mildly unbalanced female who feels over-responsible for the death of her last boyfriend, she spends the night with him but then ditches him because she needs to focus on expiating her imaginary guilt, whereupon she begins unknowingly working with his brother and becoming romantically involved with him (an absurd lack of boundaries made apparently necessary for the plot to develop)).

Of course there are further plot twists so I won't reveal anymore that might necessitate a spoiler warning, not the worst film but not great either, kudos to the director for at least taking on something somewhat unconventional.

This started as a short film, with different actors, but was made into a full length film with nick kroll and adam scott. They have worked together on so many projects. Bill has supported his blind brother robbie in his challenges and races and marathons. But robbie asks so much of him. When bill finally tells robbie he doesn't want to be his coach, robbie says it's okay... he has a new coach. And it's rose, the girl who just slept with bill! Jenny slate also worked on "big mouth". The brothers love each other, but robbie is really taking advantage of bill, and treats him pretty badly. Rose should be telling robbie that she had dated bill first, but she doesn't have the courage. A funny moment where the blind guy doesn't get charged for smoking weed, but the sighted guy does. And a running gag where the blind guy keeps getting into the driver's seat and drives the car for a while. They need to start telling each other the truth sometime, but it's not easy to do. Written and directed by sophie goodhart. It's pretty good.

Adam Scott stands out in the movie as the blind brother. He plays jerk real well. Perfectly made it hard to feel sorry for him. Making it easy for us to feel sorry for Nick Knoll's character, who is the protagonist.

Knolls plays a man who has a one night stand with the girl of his dreams, only for her to become the object of his blind brother's affections when she sees him as a charity case.

It's a crazy film about having an older brother who seems to be better at everything than you are (Except in this case, he can't see as well).

The filmmakers tried to make a very quiet comedy that sneaks up on you, but it does not effect me as well as others like it. They're parts were the movie makes the blindness part of the joke was definitely funny without demeaning the handicap (as far as I...see). As a matter of fact, the movie attempts to make you see how blind people are people (and jerks) too, and they did a good job of that as well.

My Blind Brother, is what it is and it has lots of fun moments, but not the best comedy on the block.

This film tells the story of a man who spends his life taking care of his over achieving blind brother, who seems to over shadow him in every way possible.

"My Blind Brother" is a funny comedy. If you look at it from the point of view of the blind brother, it's a pretty empowering and uplifting story. The blind brother gets unconditional support from the able sighted brother, which is touching. If you look at it from the perspective of the able sighted brother, then things are not as rosy. He has no life, no nothing. He doesn't even get any respect from anyone, or receive credit for anything he has done for the blind brother. I feel rather sorry for the able sighted brother.

Robbie (Adam Scott) is a blind athlete, beloved by all, and an SOB to his brother Bill (Nick Kroll). Bill feels both bitter about his treatment and guilty about being responsible for the blindness. Bill falls for Rose (Jenny Slate) who also feels guilty about causing her boyfriend's death. They hook up but Rose can't commit. She decides to be a helper and takes on Robbie. She also takes him as his boyfriend before realizing that he's Bill's brother. Francie (Zoe Kazan) is Rose's roommate.

These are funny people. There are some funny scenes. It's an interesting premise but the flaws in these characters make it less funny than it ought to be. Ultimately, it leads an incident that is almost too dark to be funny. These characters need some changes to improve their relationships. I actually love the banter between Jenny Slate and Zoe Kazan which makes their breakdown harder to take. I like the general premise but it just needs some changes.