Double vue

Persuaded that his blind mother is threatened by a murderer, a little boy leads an inquiry which leads him to the brink of madness.

Variation on the psychological thriller, "Clairvoyance" tugs us, in the course of a tortuous intrigue, into a shady world, where reality and imagination get completely muddled. A puzzling and alarming work.

The movie is very unusual, and the images were very striking. I couldn't help but think of The Reflecting Skin while watching this movie, as it too is full of odd imagery, and what, at least to me, appear to be delusions by the main character.

Things returning to "normal" suddenly at the end got me, but this film is so dark that it HAS to get better somehow.

If your experience of blindness in movies is limited to A Patch of Blue, The Miracle Worker or Scent of a Woman, you'll find this one very disorienting. It starts with the boy seeing all sorts of strange goings-on--blind people getting aggressed in the streets of London, even murdered by a razor-wielding maniac. Then half way through we see the 'blind' people are sighted and the boy has severe vision problems. There's an undeniable power to some of the images (Clare Holman doing a nude photo session with a creepy photographer will stick in my mind for a while) but the script is too digressive for the story to cohere.

Mark Peploe wrote Profession: Reporter for Antonioni and three films for Bertolucci; his talent has been recognized for decades. With a bit more discipline, this could have been a classic.

I do agree with several of the reviews, in that the story is choppy, and the perspective of the boy, played by Ben Kwyworth, is often disjointed and patchy.

However, there are a few intriguing scenes, and interesting cinematography. What does the world look like to a blind person? What does it feel like? I imagine that was a point the director was attempting to get across.

Yes, the scene with the golden retriever, Toby was awful. But can a blind person imagine that, the dog jumping through the window was possibly a menace? If he were indeed blind, this could be possible.

The wedding scenes were annoying and not really essential to the film. A few strange scenes where the boy is friendly with the young bride Rose, and he sees how she is patronized, as the ice cream man stares down her dress and tells her to eat all her ice cream as it will fill her out (She, being blind, is unaware her blouse is partially open).

This is not a bad film, if you are patient. Do not expect action and American explosions and violence 8/10.

This is a very interesting film. If you watched it without any knowledge of what the storyline was then you should have been intrigued by the slightly twisted world the lead character lives in.

That is about as much as I can describe the film without ruining it by telling you more.

In terms of a film despite living in England my whole life I do tend to prefer cheerier sets than those seen in this film. I find them depressing to be honest. Some people will probably find that adds to the film or its message.

My strongest post viewing thought was, I wish they had crammed more into the film to push the story along. There is some good stuff here, but I fear that many viewers will just be lost or lose patience; if you don't feed a dog he won't be your friend.