Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Thought this would be more appropriate here in Coax, and I’m glad NeoSamurai85 wrote in. I didn’t see this HBO Premiere tonight, but it’s certainly been given enough on-air publicity in recent weeks. Was it worth it? Let’s see what our reviewer thinks...
Hey Moriarty!
Don't know if you guys will post this on acount of it being a review of a TV movie but what the heck, here it goes!
Hysterical Blindness
I let a little time slip by before I ran to the keyboard to review Hysterical Blindness. I let it all digest. To me Hysterical Blindness is a special film. That’s not to say it’s on another level from other good dramas or the next American Beauty. It keeps it’s promise. Anyone who has HBO knows this film has been hyped to levels that beg for disappointment. Hell they’ve summed up the plot to the point that it felt pointless even sitting down and watching it. Fortunately I did give the film a chance though and I’m quite pleased that I did.
Hysterical Blindness takes place in New Jersey some time in the mid 80’s. It focuses on a young woman named Debby, (Uma Thurman) her mother Virginia, (Gena Rowlands) and her best friend Beth (Juliette Lewis). Debby is a frantic girl who wants a cardboard cut out of happiness and throws herself at men trying to get it. She begins having attacks of hysterical blindness which lead her to pursue a steady relationship. She builds an illusion around a guy she goes home with and refuses to face up to it until she hits the wall. Her mother is a waitress at a diner where she has after so many years, apparently found love again. Naturally Debby hates the guy’s guts and jealously believes any possibility she can think of other than that he might actually love her mother. Debby’s best friend Beth is a single mother who doesn’t want to grow up. Unlike most female characters like her though she seems to beam with a warm melancholy that fades into a broken sadness, only seeming to magnify Debby’s franticness in a semi-polar sort of way I think.
One of the things that I love is the genuineness of the characters. It is rare in TV movies or even big Hollywood films that you get characters that you really do just believe the way you do these. It isn’t like Moonstruck where every character has depth and a story of their own which they try to get out to you every chance they get. (And for the love of god that was not a put down to Moonstruck!) It feels like your jest some ghost following the three lead characters around and that every one else is just going about their lives around you ambiently. The acting on everyone was truly top notch, which is essential for a film as character driven as this. I was particularly surprised by on the topic of smaller roles by Justin Chambers playing Rick, Debby’s so called boyfriend. He really gave life to a potentially flat role and gain my respect for his ability to act. That was really to me one of the things that made the film special. How it showed that it’s actors really could act.
Up to this point I did not think of Uma Thurman as a real great actress. She was great in Pulp Fiction, but who wasn’t? This film made me realize her ability as an actress and made me look back at her past performances (even the ones I really hated and I think you can guess which those were) and see them in a new light. It’s her best performance to date.
If you missed this film on it’s first round I highly recommend it to people who loved Shot in the Heart for I rank it about as good… perhaps even better. If you don’t have HBO do remember to rent this when it comes to video. It’s one of the few TV movies I’d actually consider buying.
-NeoSamurai85
