Randka w ciemno

Some women look for love in all the wrong places when it is right in front of their nose. Even worse, some gals waste their time and energy with someone that is just a plain satyr in disguise. Randka w ciemno (Blind Date) is a story about the difficulties in finding love from a woman's point of view.

Majka (Katarzyna Maciag) is a cute young woman, but awfully dumb when it comes to judging guys. She is broken hearted over an older man named Cezary (Bogoslaw Linda) that dumped her for another woman. Sure, Cezary was married, but her positive outlook overlooked such things. Majka's friends want to help her out so they enter her into a dating game show. Lucky Majka is not only selected to be on the show out of the other applicants, but is even chosen by the guy out of the two other women. Their prize is a week-long trip to France on their blind date. It turns out the contestant is someone she already knows and doesn't like as he sets off her creep alert, so maybe she isn't so lucky after all. But Majka being who she is, starts to get charmed by him on their trip together and opens herself up to trouble.

I was able to correctly predict what will happen by only watching the first five minutes, so it is absolutely impossible to give away the plot more than the film itself does. Even the poster art for the film (DVD case cover) also gives away the story, but there is also something misleading there, so at least that builds some false expectations to throw us off a bit.

Although the package considers this movie a comedy, I do not. There was almost nothing in the movie I found funny and I only lightly chuckled once (and the person I watched it with didn't laugh at all). I would consider this a romance and a story about a woman looking for love. Overall, I think most of the story is tragic and Majka's story is a very realistic one. Her tale is so sad because there really are some women that are a poor judge of character and end up with someone who is not who they appear to be (and some guys are just so devious that they do not hesitate to do whatever it takes to fool others). But beyond the tragic part, there is the positive side to the story that you will just have to find out for yourself.

I am not a stranger to foreign cinema, having watched many Bollywood and Middle Eastern films before, but this was the first Polish film I've ever seen, and hopefully not the last! I really enjoyed it. Perhaps the plot was predictable, but the characters seemed real and I really liked Majka because she seemed to represent those women we all know who fall for the wrong guy every time. I disagree with the previous reviewer about not finding it very 'funny'. I actually found it very charming and amusing at times, as well as being witty and clever. It didn't feel like I was watching a film - it felt like I was watching everyone's lives playing out as if I knew them personally.

I'm surprised it has been rated so low by people on here. No it's not the best romantic comedy film in the world, but it's genuine and there wasn't a dull moment. All the characters bounced off of each other really well and the acting was excellent. There were some really poignant scenes between Katarzyna Maciag (Majka) and Leslaw Zurek (Kuba) in particular. If you enjoy romantic comedies that are somewhat predictable but very 'real', you will definitely enjoy this film!