Customer Reviews

Hysterical Blindness

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The performances in this movie are brilliant, but, it also gave me the creeps. I say this because it was so dead-on accurate in portraying the neighborhood I grew up in, and, the lives of "quiet desperation" that many there lived. At the time in which this movie takes place, I was working in a factory in upstate New York. The mentality displayed in this picture, of "you're born, ya work, ya party...." is how most of the people I was around at that time unquestioningly and comformingly lived their lives. I am not crazy about most actors today, but, Uma Thurman and Juliette Lewis have always been two of the few exceptions. In this made for HBO film, they immerse themselves so totally in their co-dependant characters that there is not a sign of a *star*, nor that they are performing...they simply "are" the two lost, searching souls with nowhere to go, and no way to get there if they did. The '80's were such a tacky decade, and these girls have it all "down". Watching them flounder, knowing that they want more out of life than their circumstances have thus far allowed, but not having a clue as to how to begin change, is painful to behold. As are their sad attempts at intimacy and self validation with disinterested men who want nothing more than quick sex. Watching Uma Thurman almost beg a creepy, cavalier one night stand who's just using her to "talk to me..." is heartbreaking. When she asks the bartender "what's wrong with me?", it is not a casual comment, but, a cry from the depths. Gena Rowlands is wonderful also as Thurman's waitress mom, who probably was an early training ground for her daughters bad habits, and lack of self esteem. These are not bad people, but, they want desperately to connect, and just don't know how. Also watching Thurman's character, after another night of rejection, crawl into bed with her mother in a desperate and pained reaching out for unconditional comfort, is a very emotional moment. This movie is about depressing lives, but, is ultimately hopeful, and shows that change, growth, and possibilities can sometimes begin with something as simple as a new living room set. And, the slow realization that, while we're all vulnerable, true happiness begins from within, and, with knowing thyself. I happened upon this movie by chance, and it surprisingly and completely cast its spell on me. A wonderful character study, made into something very special because of the portrayals of Uma Thurman and Juliette Lewis. Watching actors like this is almost an honor. If this sounds like a too extravagant appraisal, it is also because it is so rare. A wonderful experience.

This movie was unsettling and hard to watch...I mean that in the best way. Uma Thurman in particular was so pathetic, so clueless and vulnerable....just desperate for acceptance...it was hearbreaking. Watching her character feign happiness and mold herself and her ideals to whatever man happened to be paying attention to her at the moment had me riveted. I have never been so impressed with Uma Thurman...FABULOUS STORY...watch it.

I sought out this movie because 1) It was made by Mira Nair, and 2) I am an ex-patriot of New Jersey. After viewing the delightful "Monsoon Wedding", I have taken an interest in Ms. Nair's talent, and "Hysterical Blindness" expertly captures the character of its environs. This movie is to New Jersey what "Fargo" was to Minnesota. (Yes I know that Fargo is in North Dakota, but who wants to call a movie "Brainerd"? Or "Bayonne", for that matter?)

"Hysterical Blindness" features spot-on acting by the cast, portraying lost and lonely characters. Uma Thurman captures the high-strung and neurotic Debbie with an inspiring performance. Here is a beautiful young woman whose utter cluelessness and total inability to be spontaneous prevent her from making any sort of real connection to anyone. Some of the scenes are truly cringe-inducing, reflecting the sheer desperation of the situation.

Perhaps to the reader, this doesn't sound like "entertainment", but don't lose me yet. There is much humor in the friendship of Debbie and Beth (Juliette Lewis), and Beth's adolescent daughter. Then there is the sweet love story between Debbie's mother, a waitress, (Gena Rowlands) and one of her customers at the diner (Ben Gazzara). The couple's grace at falling in love contrasts starkly to Debbie's attempts to force it, making it all the more painful.

After viewing the movie on DVD, I immediately watched it again in the version which includes Ms. Nair's commentary, which further cemented my respect for her and that of the players of this performance. If we are honest with ourselves, it will be easy to empathize with these characters, even as we may think we are laughing at them. Don't judge this DVD by its cover; it looks like a piece of trash, when in fact Mira Nair has created another fine piece of work.

I just cannot understand how this movie didn't get critically acclaimed. It is an amazing piece. At times cringingly reminiscent of my own mistakes in my youth, but an extraodinary script and the most amazing acting story.

It is about two women, 'pushing thirty' as it says in the blurb above. The difference here is that they have never grown up into adult relationships, they are searching for something which they think is an adult relationship, but searching in the same places, the bar the have always gone to. The men are all just the same, and everything is towards a casual one night stand.

It is set in the mid 1980's, the hair is Jersey-big, the jeans skinny stretch stove pipes and the accents nasal whines. But Juliette Lewis and Uma thurmas utterly pin their characters down. They are helped along but an extraodinary script and great direction. The neediness Uma Thurman's character, at once picky and judging, the next whining and needy, and then in another moment, coquettishly naive. I am not normally a fan of Juliette Lewis but she absolutely takes this character, the lost dreamer, and makes it her own. She is almost stifled by her need to help Uma's character, and support her own daughter, that her own life becomes crushed (willingly it seems) beneath everything else.

I bought the DVD in the end because I found it so powerful and multilayered that I wanted to see it a few more times and watch the extraodinary relationships and subtle subtexts of the movie.

If you want to watch something that really show cases these talents, and yet does it without grandstanding you will enjoy this. It is very much a story of hope, and if nothing else it has a great 80's sound track!

I accidentally found this movie while "channel surfing". I couldn't change the channel or stop watching. Not to mention that my two most favorite actresses were both in the movie.Uma and Juliette are absolutely brilliant! They were so "real", I could definitely identify with Uma's character. She is disturbing to watch, but her "pain" was so intense. I'll admit it...I was crying with her during some of the scenes.I am just so happy that it's been made available for everyone. In short....fantastic drama!

She , Debby, could have used some good advice. Borrowing from Jacqueline Carey, you can't find love where it isn't and you can't hide love where it is, this film tells a story of a pathetic woman who just doesn't see too clearly. She has bouts of blindness and the doctor has told her it is caused by stress. She is absolutely desperate, completely so, and so blind to her own circumstances that it takes a bartender to tell her that she "don't see things to good". She's just pitiful throwing herself at, what her dumb friend can plainly see, is a mean guy, just because he has "Patrick Swayze eyes". She throw's it all out in front of him, making a total and complete jerk of herself, and he uses her and proceeds to get rid of her right away and she's so wild with desperation that she actually thinks there is something there.

Debby's proud of her special parking spot by the bar, like that makes her special. She's proud of her Camaro, like that makes her special. She pulls out all the stops to get what she needs, but the problem is, she's grasping like a drowning person. EVERYONE CAN SEE IT! BUT HER! SHE'S HYSTERICALLY BLIND! Uma does such a fine, painful job of portraying this character, that it just makes you ache for her. I wanted to have a talk with her and explain to her what everyone else can plainly see, I wanted to be her friend, and then I remembered this is a movie! I love it when a movie can make me forget I am watching a movie.

I found it odd when Ben Gazzara's character told her he could see that she was smart. She really liked that but she seemed pretty stupid, so I don't know if that line was meant to show that Gazzara's character's kindness or if it meant something deeper, but if it did it was lost on me. Maybe she was a smart woman trapped in an emotionally blind woman's body. Another thing I wondered was the bridge in the background. I looms over the characters like a dark cage trapping them all into this dismal existance, at the same time being the only way out.

Some people found this movie humorous but I didn't find it funny at all. I thought it
was dark and painful but the honesty of it simply overwhelmed me. Uma and Juliette, two of my favorites, deliver powerful performances. If it was a budget movie, they certainly didn't waste their money on stars. Gena Rowlands may have been a little too classy for the role, if there was any problems at all with casting. I think she had a hard time bringing it down, which I know Gena can do because I've seen her do it in other films. Her clothes were a little too expensive looking to represent most old waitresses I have known, but that isn't her fault, is it?

This is a great movie if you're interested in serious acting talent.

There will always be females who can't be alone. We've all known at least one of them. They're the ones who sit at the bar night after night hoping that this time, Mr. Right will walk in and make all their dreams come true. Hysterical Blindness is a movie about two lifelong friends who are so oblivious to what's really going on around them that they became that cliché.

Uma Thurman and Juliette Lewis are consummate actresses. Perhaps that's why this film was so painful to watch - they both did very well portraying twentysomethings with little self respect. Debbie's (Uma) father left her and her mom when she was 13; her motives for bar slumming are classic, obvious, and sad. Beth (Juliette) has a daughter whom she leaves at home alone to go bar hopping with Debbie nearly every night. They repeatedly trade their dignity and their sexuality for that very temporary illusion of closeness with a guy (aka, "one night stands"). Neither one of them knows how to not flirt with any eligible male that shows them the slightest interest.

As you might expect, this outlook on life leads them into some bleak situations. Debbie imagines that a guy she meets one night is much more into her than he really is and starts throwing herself at him in a lot of embarrassing stunts to get and keep his attention. Beth nearly loses her daughter. There's a very pointed moral to this story about appreciating your friends and loved ones, not looking for something that isn't there and facing reality - all very true in my opinion.

What really didn't grab me about Hysterical Blindness was the fact that it was paced so slowly that it seemed to take forever to get around to making its point; meanwhile, I can relate to Debbie all to well on some level, which is a painful thing. It drags me back to that time in my own life where I was just as insecure in my own way. Not a nice place to revisit, even if honest. And I was bored even then.

So, if you're really into Uma and Juliette, this is a brilliant showcasing of their talents. Otherwise, I'd skip Hysterical Blindness in favor of any of the more upbeat chick flicks like 13 Going on 30.
Andrea, aka Merribelle

I cannot say enough about the performances of Thurman and Lewis in this wonderful character study set in the late 1980s. Thurman nailed her character -- a lonely working girl who spent her nights in a bar looking for love. I ached to hear her struggle to connect on any level with the guy who took her home for nothing more than sex on his living room floor. In desperation to hang onto this man, Thurman heartbreakingly begs to make him breakfast, which he refuses, then asks to make him a dinner of fillet mignon. Lewis is pefect as the too-young mother whose sense of socializing is stalled at age 16. Kudos to the make-up and stylists, too. The raccoon-smudged eyeliner and stringy hair punctuated by overcurled bangs was perfect. Thurman and Lewis are two very gifted actors

This has to be one of Uma's top performances, ever. Her part has to be one of the most real characters ever written about. You saw her not as a role, but as a real person.You may have saw yourself in her, or you may have you seen thousands of other girls in her. In reality, all she wants is love. Just to feel love, and to be loved. She is willing to go to any depths possible to find it. Desperation, so to speak.


When watching 'Hysterical Blindess' you almost forget you're engaged in a film, it seems like you're watching the world around you. Because this is it...this isn't some fiction story that you know is impossible to ever happen..this is what goes on in the real world that surrounds us.

Definitely check out this film, I do believe you'll enjoy it. Juliette Lewis & Gena Rowlands also give all-star performances.

A fine, albeit grim, and realistic portrait of two young women in the 1980s who are not among the lucky ones. Rings true. I found the story and performances engrossing. Uma Thurman's character is complex and leaves an impression, like someone you have known in your life. The chaos of a desperate and hopeless fog developing into a partly cloudy day, with just the slightest glimmer of hope, is the paltry emotional pay-off of this film. Not enough for everyone I think. If you greatly value answers, closure, and/or happy endings in a film, I think you'll want to bypass this one. Only hopelessly serious drama fans need apply.