Blink

This is one of those movies that works if you don't take five minutes to think about it. It all starts with the condition that she has. At best, this stretches the bounds of reality. For the retina to replace the faces of those encountered with those encountered at a previous time is absurd. Chances are those faces would appear above a fireplace or on a sidewalk. There were these transitional scenes where a face would morph into the bad guy and back to a policeman or something. This young woman should have had an incredible amount of therapy, both physical and psychological to deal with here environment. All that aside, the whole thing is hard to swallow. Quinn's character is such an ass. He dismisses her so quickly. She was right to take on the police because they are utterly incompetent. But why this guy gets a chance, I don't know. I guess she and love are both blind. Anyway, enough said. I felt that this is one of those movies where the writer said, "Let's see. If there was this woman who had this eye condition (which I just read about in Reader's Digest, what could happen to her? It's just that at that point it's about an abusive romance and not much else.

Madeline Stowe is excellent in the roll of a woman blinded when she was six who receives an operation that restores her sight but leaves her in a blurred world. She is pursued by a misguided person that seeks to take away her eyes because the cornea was from a young woman he admired. The music of the "Drovers" is most appealing for the type of story being portrayed. I would certainly buy this again if it is issued in DVD format.

Emma is a girl in her 20s who has been blind for 20 years. A new type of eye operation partially restores her sight, but she is having problems: sometimes she doesn't "remember" what she's seen until later. One night she is awakened by a commotion upstairs. Peering out of her door, she sees a shadowy figure descending the stairs. Convinced that her neighbour has been murdered, she approaches the police, only to find that she is unsure if it was just her new eyes playing tricks on her.... It's not a surprise that this didn't make much of an impact when released. These sort of thrillers were released every other month in the nineties, bu the inclusion of eye surgery is surely a novelty. It is, but thats where all the novel ideas end. We have Aiden Quinn, the lead detective, and guess who he ends up with? Stowe has a guide dog, guess what happens to it? And so on and so on. There is a little bit of a twist come the end, but it doesn't really matter, all the blanks are filled in and it doesn't really bother the grey matter. Stowe is good in her role, and it has to be her best performance, its a shame she never really picked up better scripts, could she really has screen presence. See it if you like thrillers, you don't expect to be surprised too much...

..irrational, illogical behavior (running away from your police escort while being stalked by a killer ring a bell, anyone?-) and general foolishness. I first thought I'd not watch this but then I read a positive comment on the movie here on IMDb which claimed that though this might mostly be a pretty average movie there also was something special about it. Well, to me this felt pretty much the usual cannon fodder. I think this could have been a decent movie. The basic plot is OK. However, they didn't make it so, but instead so-so, so towards the end of the movie the only thing that kept me watching this was that I wanted to see how badly it would stall, hoping that that it would get bad enough to be actually funny. It didn't. Instead it had some filler arguments which I particularly hate in a movie (you know those scenes where two or more previously rationally behaving people suddenly start behaving like they have PMS). Not good enough to enjoy and not really bad enough to be campy. IMO a waste of time. My voting history should be available here: http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=10127200

When Emma Brody was a child her mother smashed her face into a mirror for using Mom's makeup. The result was blindness. Two decades later the independent Emma is a fiddler in the Drover's rock band. Meanwhile an ophthalmologist has received corneas that originated from a young woman who died in an auto accident. He calls Emma, who soon has cornea transplants and has her sight somewhat restored. She still cannot focus too clearly, and also has "retroactive vision," a (supposed) post-surgical delayed reaction. She sees images not instantaneously but later, and sometimes a day after the fact! Emma is not yet ready for eyeglasses or contact lenses, which will improve her vision, but only to 20/50. Now a young lady is murdered in her apartment in Emma's building. Did Emma see the murderer leave the scene of the crime? Although she cannot discern very well, she does remember the distinct "soapy" smell of the murderer. Apparently he detests blood, and thus thoroughly scrubs it away. Later she detects the same smell in her eye surgeon's office. Is he the killer? There are other murders, and some elements of danger. An anxious situation occurs when the vulnerable Emma notices two eyes drawn in lipstick on her inside clothes closet mirror. Another is her entry aboard a nearly empty Chicago El commuter train at night. Emma's best friend is her loyal and spirited golden retriever, Ralph, who is fun to watch. Soon Emma develops a rather rocky love relationship with investigating detective John Halstrom, whose apathetic actions make him none too likable. Yet the two leads are inevitably drawn together. The police, lacking empathy and misunderstanding the cynical woman, act pretty much the same. They do their jobs, and that's it. Although Emma is strong, her handicap presents a disadvantage, and the killer is closing in. Nonetheless, he does not reckon on the mettle that was bubbling underneath the tough woman all along. Madeline Stowe was actually well into her thirties when she played the role of a young woman in her late-twenties. She gets away with the part, though, because of her good looks, energy, and nice performance. She certainly creates sympathy and makes us root for her to turn out well. Recommended.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.) As thrillers go this is above average. True, the premise is a "been there, done that" sort of thing with a romance between the detective and the potential victim with a serial killer in the shadows, etc. However there is just enough originality here added to solid performances by the stars to make it worthwhile. Aidan Quinn (no relation to Anthony) plays a cute and quirky detective in the Windy City on the trail of a budding serial killer. Madeleine Stowe is a blue grass/Irish violinist blind since she was eight. As the movie opens she is about to get cornea transplants, and before long she can see, sort of, which is important since she has become a witness to murder. Some of what she sees are flashbacks to the day before, which makes her a problem witness for the police. Some other flashbacks are to when her mother smashed her face into a mirror for playing with her make-up. How sick is that? I presume this was dreamed up by Dana Stevens, who gets credit for the script, which is a kind of mishmash of clever lines and shlock dialogue as though two different people (or half a dozen) wrote it. Michael Apted's direction is not inspired although it isn't all that bad either. But he doesn't develop the serial killer's personality, and so the weirdo's motivation seems a bit of a stretch. Also undeveloped is the doctor whose love for Stowe is unrequited. The main thing is the erotic chemistry between Stowe and Quinn, and the personality of Stowe's character, which is original and the best thing in the movie. I think this would have received a better reception had Quinn's character fallen in madly in love with the violinist. As it plays, we are not sure whether he really cares or not. Madeleine Stowe is sexy and does a good job in a demanding role, probably the most demanding of her modest career. See it for her.

Madeline Stowe of "The Last of the Mohicans" fame stars in BLINK as a feisty musician who undergoes a new type of eye surgery to restore her vision, lost in childhood at the hands of an abusive mom. As her vision slowly returns, she runs afoul of a killer who is convinced she has gotten a good look at him, and is now after her. She tells the cops, who not surprisingly laugh at her. The irony is, she only sees the killer in a sort of surreal way, with the camera serving as Stowe's vision and showing us what amounts to little more than phantasms. She also suffers from mental time gaps with her returning vision. Stowe ends up falling for burly cop Aidan Quinn, who decides she's telling the truth and protects her. There's a nice trick at the very end involving the killer. Suspenseful and stylish for its time, with a thoughtful performance by Stowe.

A cheaply made thriller involving a blind musician (Madeleine Stowe) who is gradually beginning to get back her sight and also experiencing some so called "retroactive vision." Stowe's "Stakeout" costar, Aidan Quinn gives this film some credibility with his role as a cop who believes that Stowe is the only person who can recognize the identity of a serial killer but it's not enough to save this film.

First, I have not seen the movie all the way through, but what I watched I liked. I am a bartender so I work late. I came home to find it on the television. So, I got on IMDb to find out what movie it was and low and behold, this is it. I was reading the summary and I don't know if this counts for much, but someone wrote that she was a cellist. Sadly, whomever that was needs to visit a music class because the violin is a far thing from the cello. But to continue, from what I watched, I was caught up in this movie. Someone commented that this was not a "thriller" but it definitely was for me. I am a woman and live alone with a dog and from the time she hears the noise upstairs to the next morning, when she has the flashback of the man in her apartment, well, it really scared the crap out of me. I normally don't get scared at movies but this one definitely got my heart rate up and I could hardly get to sleep. So, I will be heading to Blockbuster, when I can find someone to spend the night, to finish watching this thriller, even if it is so only to me.

When I heard Michael Apted was bringing us the new James Bond movie, my expectations were high, partly because of his 7UP series - following British children throughout their lives - but mostly because of "Blink". There are two brief scenes with children in this movie that show what a subtle director can do with little or nothing, but the real difference in this film is the main characters: not exactly lovable people, these two have a way to go before anything approaching romance is on the horizon and Mr Apted manages to traverse this distance in 106 minutes, so if the world is not enough try this one out.