I really wanted to like this movie. Chris Pine is adorable and gives an appealing performance as a blind man looking for love. It's such a compelling story - how can you not root for this guy? But the movie doesn't know how to pick a tone! First, it's a raunchy, sexed-up comedy, with Danny's therapist stripping down to her underwear for no discernible reason and one of his blind dates pushing his face into her breasts and another doing a completely unsexy strip tease, which, of course, he can't see. Meanwhile, he's fallen in love with the lovely receptionist at his doctor's office, where he is contemplating an experimental surgery to partially restore his sight. It's like there were two movies that got crammed into one. The first is aimed at teenage boys and the other is aimed at people like me, who actually like movies about real people and real emotions. If you can ignore the sophomoric stuff, it's not a bad romance. And I guess if you just came for the breasts, there's enough of those for you. But it could have been a far better movie if they had just decided which one they wanted to make.
Blind Dating
2006
Action / Comedy / Romance
Blind Dating
2006
Action / Comedy / Romance
Plot summary
A charming young blind man signs up for a dangerous experimental procedure: brain surgery that may give him partial vision. While taking tests he falls hard for the lovely East Indian nurse, but she has been promised in an arranged marriage - a promise she feels she cannot break without dishonoring her family. But when the man's brain surgery goes unexpectedly awry, the crisis effects a reunion between the two young lovers.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
Extremely uneven
Interesting conceptually, blindly executed
There are several good, interesting ideas that could have been explored in this movie - one is a blind young man, interested in a serious relationship and wanting to have sex with meaning -- who doesn't view himself as attractive -- and how he goes about pursuing that relationship and what happens along the way. This movie could play as a drama with comedy or a comedy with drama. Another way it could have gone is the experience of a blind young man who undergoes experimental surgery and the outcome and difficulties encountered along the way. More than likely this would be mostly a drama. Finally, there's the relationship between a blind man and a sighted woman, a romance based movie, either drama or comedy, or the relationship between a Caucasian American male and an female of Indian descent from a very traditional Indian family, and the difficulties they would encounter along the way, again a drama with some comedy more than likely.
Unfortunately, this movie overreached it grasp. There were some very good moments: the basketball game with the friend, the parents at the hospital while they await the outcome of the surgery, etc. But the whole isn't even a sum of these parts -- it's a combination of movies that do not cohere in a way that one can call a success.
Its unfortunate: the idea of a romance comedy that isn't simplistic, Boy meets Girl, Boy and Girl find love, encounter hindrance, break-up, but Love Wins Out, is a trite, tired formula. This movie had the promise to be a bit more than that, as DEFINITELY, MAYBE attempted and succeeded earlier this year. A longer running time would have helped and a better screenplay.
The performances was reasonably solid for the budget. Technically, the film is fine, location wise and situation some interesting choices. The biggest weakness is the plot, story and script.
Chris Pine deserves some better roles, to see what he can actually make with something more complex and intelligent. Some excellent character actors are wasted, although their performances are fine. There are some unfortunate and unnecessary stereotypes with both the Indian characters and the females set-ups that the Larry character attempts to hook up with Chris Pine's role as Danny.
movie with split personality
Danny Valdessecchi (Chris Pine) is blind and everybody likes him. Girls think he's hot and his psychiatrist Dr. Evans (Jane Seymour) can't stop stripping in front of him. His inappropriate limo-driving brother Larry (Eddie Kaye Thomas) keeps trying to set him up to lose his virginity. He volunteers for experimental brain surgery to regain his eyesight. Leeza (Anjali Jay) is the new receptionist at the medical office. She has been promised to a traditional East Indian arranged marriage.
Chris Pine is an appealing photogenic guy. Brother Larry and the various girls seem to be trying for a wacky comedy. It's not done that well but it looks worst next to the humorless Leeza. There is next-to-no chemistry between her and Danny. She might as well be in another movie from a stripping Jane Seymour. This movie has split personality and they don't get along. Instead of trying to give Leeza her own dramatic story, the movie should try harder to incorporate her into his drama and give her some fun.