Reviews

Blindsight

Courage and naïveté

By NICK MCCARTHY | March 12, 2008

1.5 Stars

Blindsight

Fueled by an equal measure of courage and naïveté, six sightless Tibetan students take a demanding field trip toward equality via Lhakpa Ri, a 23,000-foot peak on the north side of Everest. Blindsight, however, impedes more than it inspires. There’s a rich humanitarian documentary on human frailty and perseverance within this tedious mess of backstory and action-adventure angles, but director Lucy Walker is too narrow-sighted to locate it; she spends more time exploiting the children who fail than celebrating those who succeed. Although the opening is promising, as she probes the prejudices against blindness in Tibetan society due to Buddhist belief, Walker would rather focus on the tear slowly running down Tashi’s cheek than pursue the social implications of the students’ dangerous challenge. The optimistic, tacked-on coda, which features a child belting out “Happy Together,” exposes this production for what it ultimately is — an exercise in damning with faint praise. Tibetan + German | 104 minutes | Kendall Square

Topics: Reviews , Lucy Walker

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ARTICLES BY NICK MCCARTHY

NEVER FOREVER | May 21, 2008
Although Kim has her pulse on religious, racial, and social conflict, she relies too much on contrived plotting.

ROMAN DE GARE | May 16, 2008
Claude Lelouch is a fabulous fibber.

BLINDSIGHT | March 12, 2008
Six sightless Tibetan students take a demanding field trip toward equality via Lhakpa Ri, a 23,000-foot peak on the north side of Everest. Blindsight, however, impedes more than it inspires.

GRACE IS GONE | January 23, 2008
It’s strange that a film whose young characters are told to question the media should rely on its score to dictate how you’ll feel.

MILAREPA: MAGICIAN, MURDERER, SAINT | October 03, 2007
All mountains, monks, and a soundtrack of wailing women, Neten Chokling’s film opens with the announcement of a birth.