Blink

There have been a load of psychological thrillers made in this decade, often heaped with sex and gratuitous violence. BLINK uses these familiar conventions, but becomes a powerhouse suspense flick with its convincing characters, ominous camera shots, and beautifully written script. Madeline Stowe stars as a blind violinist for a clubhouse band who is given her sight back with a fortunate (or unfortunate) corneal transplant. She has difficulty adjusting to the seeing world, having recurring images flashed back at her at inopportune times. Even with this handicap, she believes she has been an eyewitness to an escaping murderer, but her biggest feat is to convince the police department of her credibility. Aidan Quinn (an under-rated talent) plays the Chicago cop who believes her claim and falls in love with her in the process. What really stands in BLINK is the honesty in the leads' emotions, afraid to care again after the conventional one-night-stand. The atmosphere is most suspenseful, using Stowe's actual eyesight as a mystery in itself. Amidst all the crap that has been radiated from these types of films, BLINK delivers something credible for a change. Rating: Three stars.

This is one of those movies that works if you don't take five minutes to think about it. It all starts with the condition that she has. At best, this stretches the bounds of reality. For the retina to replace the faces of those encountered with those encountered at a previous time is absurd. Chances are those faces would appear above a fireplace or on a sidewalk. There were these transitional scenes where a face would morph into the bad guy and back to a policeman or something. This young woman should have had an incredible amount of therapy, both physical and psychological to deal with here environment. All that aside, the whole thing is hard to swallow. Quinn's character is such an ass. He dismisses her so quickly. She was right to take on the police because they are utterly incompetent. But why this guy gets a chance, I don't know. I guess she and love are both blind. Anyway, enough said. I felt that this is one of those movies where the writer said, "Let's see. If there was this woman who had this eye condition (which I just read about in Reader's Digest, what could happen to her? It's just that at that point it's about an abusive romance and not much else.

An Talented Musician (Madeleine Stowe) is having her eyes restored after twenty years of blindness. After the successful operation, she's becomes a key witness to a murder but her brain is having trouble to make a visual information on the killer. The police thinks, she's a crackpot but expect for one detective (Aidan Quinn) is trying to help her.

Directed by Michael Apted (Coal's Miner Daughter, Gorialls in the Mist, Enigma) made an intriguing suspense thriller that is well made, funny, entertaining & thanks to the sharp performances by Stowe and Quinn makes this one more than an enjoyable film. Perphas it's a bit heavy handed for some tastes, because of Stowe's character has "retroactive vision" problem. In real life "retroactive vision" isn't fictional as some believed. There's something unique to this movie than the usual woman in jeopardy pictures.

DVD has an sharp anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer (Also in Pan & Scan) and an good-Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD's only feature is the original theatrical trailer. This film didn't find much success at the box office, despite being well received by the critics. This certainly play well on Video. This picture has excellent cinematography by Dante Spinotti (The Haunting "1999", Manhunter, Red Dragon) and this was certainly one of the few (and best) underrated thrillers that came out in the early 1990's. Super 35. (****/*****).

This film is among some of the best thrillers written with a good cast and a decent reason to doubt the main witness. Recommended!

I always wanted to use that word, and in this movie it describes exactly how it made me feel all while I was watching it. Very exciting stuff. Terrific chemistry between Aidan Quinn, who has never been more handsome and compelling, and Madeline Stowe, who is really magnetic in the lead role as the patient-heroine. I don't know why more people don't talk about it more often.