2004’s Blinded is an interesting, not entirely succesful film that at least tries to do something a little different and has a certain amount of ambition. That is fails is primarily down to its tiny budget; and it manages to look a considerable deal better than could be expected, given it’s c£1 million cost. And despite it’s problems, it’s far preferable to yet another tedious British comedy or overhyped slice of social realism.
Mike Hammershoi(Anders Berthelsen), a Danish drifter, turns up at an isolated farm in the wilds of Scotland looking for work. He’s taken on by the owner, Francis Black (Peter Mullan), a particularly crotchety man who is blind, and soon begins a relationship with Francis’s wife, Rachel (Jodhi May). Mike wants to leave, but Rachel has never left the farm (she was bought up there after her parents died by Francis’s mother (Phyllida Law)) and is understandably reluctant. Francis, meanwhile, suspects that something is going on and, driven by jealousy, becomes increasingly belligerant and violent. Events come to a head when he has a fight with Mike, falls into a mud-pit and – receiving no help in getting out from his rival – drowns.
It’s a melodramatic, glum concoction, and all shot in a suitably moody fashion. As mentioned already, it looks pretty darned good considering the scant resources available; the cinematography is much influenced by Hammershoi, a Dutch painter in the same mould as Whistler, who also gives the protagonist his surname. Some shots, such as a widescreen view of the sparse border moors, are quite memorable, and it holds up well against The Girl with the Pearl Earring, which played a similar trick with the Dutch painter, Vermeer.
The film it bears most similarity too, though, is David MacKenzie’s Young Adam, which also featured a drifter with an ambiguous past becoming involved with a close-knit, disfunctional couple, had a rather impressionistic feel and was very much concerned with landscape and atmosphere. The similarities are further emphasised by the presence of Peter Mullan, who played a comparable character in Mackenzie’s film and, if Blinded doesn’t really stand up to it’s predecessor, it’s partly because Young Adam was so very good.
It does have it’s problems. The pacing is rather wayward – it should probably have been a good ten minutes shorter – and the soundtrack isn’t quite good enough to propel it through the slower, more static sequences (unlinke David Byrne’s work for Young Adam). Furthermore, the relationship between Mike and Rachel never quite rings true; they seem more like partners in gloom than driven by passion for each other. Some reviewers have complained that the dialogue is unrealistic, but that’s rather missing the point, as it isn’t really supposed to be that kind of film.
It all makes for an interesting debut from writer / director Eleanor Yule, who had previously worked on TV documentaries and a series of ghost stories helmed by Christopher Lee (Ghost Stories for Christmas). It will be interesting to see what she does next.
Here’s an interview with Eleanor Yule on Woman’s Hour.
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