Hysterical Blindness

Y

Kirk Honeycutt
This review was written for the festival screening of "Hysterical Blindness."

PARK CITY -- "Hysterical Blindness" is a slice-of-life drama about two forlorn blue-collar women in 1980s New Jersey searching for love. But the loaf that director Mira Nair and her wonderful cast must work with is too stale and too thinly sliced to make a meal.

The professional work in this HBO movie, which landed the centerpiece slot at Sundance, is so good it reminds us of what talented people can do with even mediocre material. Nevertheless, "Blindness" is a disappointment. The film is slated to air in August on HBO.

Evidently, the film's stars, Uma Thurman and Juliette Lewis, fell in love with Laura Cahill's play of the same name and pushed to get this film adaptation made so they could play the leads. No wonder. These roles contain a lot of flash, sass, laughter, tears and emotional hand-wringing. Little more than theatrical exaggerations of clothing, attitudes and accents, the roles nevertheless contain enough truth to pass muster as not completely disingenuous. India-born director Nair, who would, of course, have no background in such American regionalism, lets her cast play them for what they're worth -- flamboyance and pathos.

Thurman is Debby, who lives with her waitress-mother, Virginia (Gena Rowlands), in a fairly nice house in suburban Jersey. Suffering physically as well as meta-phorically from bouts of hysterical blindness, which causes her to lose sight in moments of stress, Debby sees little in her life clearly. She hangs out nightly at Ollie's, a local dive where she drinks too much and picks up guys, thinking each one is the road to marital happiness.

Her best girl pal, Beth (Lewis), joins her in these fruitless jaunts, thereby abandoning her lovely adolescent daughter, Amber (Callie Thorne). Beth too dresses and acts like a teenager rather than a responsible mother and adult.

Virginia, long ago abandoned by her husband, meets a retiree, Nick (Ben Gazzara). He falls in love with her and talks about the two moving to a motor home in Florida. Debby instantly hates Nick, perhaps wanting to protect her mother but more likely out of jealousy.

There isn't much more to the movie except for Debby's pathetic attempt to attract a roadhouse loser named Rick (Justin Chambers), who would rather slug back beers with his buddies than engage her in a simple conversation.

One moment stands out. When Rowlands and Gazzara hold each other and dance, who cannot feel the history of all the wonderful work these two accomplished in movies by the late John Cassavetes?

Cinematographer Declan Quinn and designer Stephanie Carroll place us vividly in the working-class neighborhoods within eyesight of the great spires of Manhattan -- a world of row houses, train tracks and seedy bars.

The actors pull out all the stops in nearly every scene, but to diminishing effect. The characters never change. No one experiences anything close to an epiphany. The movie ends as it begins with everyone blindly hysterical.

HYSTERICAL BLINDNESS
HBO Films
Karuna Dream/Blum Israel
Producer: Lydia Dean Pilcher
Director: Mira Nair
Screenwriter: Laura Cahill (based on her play)
Executive producers: Uma Thurman, Jason Blum, Amy Israel
Director of photography: Declan Quinn
Production designer: Stephanie Carroll
Music: Lesley Barber
Costume designer: Kasia Walicka Maimone
Editor: Kristina Boden
Color/stereo
Cast:
Debby: Uma Thurman
Virginia: Gena Rowlands
Beth: Juliette Lewis
Rick: Justin Chambers
Nick: Ben Gazzara
Bobby: Anthony de Sando
Amber: Callie Thorne
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating