At First Sight

At First Sight

The “At First Sight” Oliver Sacks case study revolves around a blind man who is given the chance to see his surroundings by means of a surgical operation. The scene when the bandages are peeled away begs to be recorded. But having vision thrust on you can be devastating. It takes babies months or even years to develop mind-eye-hand coordination; yet this adult person who has been blind all their life should forget everything they know and start learning afresh.

The most memorable part of “At First Sight” is when he sees for the first time since age 3. “This isn’t right,” he exclaims in fear as he cannot recognize what is happening around him due to flood of pictures in front of him. “Something is off here. This must not be seeing!” And then, frantically, “Give me something in my hands,” so that he can connect a familiar touch with an unfamiliar sight.

If only this film had focused more on the enchantment of such scenes than it did on anything else, then perhaps it would have achieved something truly great. However, its moments of interest along with good acting performances become engulfed by romanticism and melodrama which are common for these types of movies but not always necessary or welcome in them especially when dealing with themes like blindness where there should be no room for formulaic plots.

I think that apart from Oliver Sacks’ article, another report by him titled “Awakenings” (1990) could also have served as an inspiration for this movie although being much better than it turned out to be itself. Both films share similarities in terms of plot structure: A disabled person gets rid off his handicap thus enabling him live normal life during certain period after which bars threatening closure appear again but much stronger this time round because they had already opened once before closing forever unlike previous occasions when they used to close temporarily only till next opening comes up again somewhere else within same person’s life span. The prototype for such films is “Charly” (1968) where a mentally handicapped man gains and then loses super intelligence.

In “Awakenings,” Robert De Niro portrays a character who suffers from an uncommon type of sleep disorder. After being treated by Robin Williams’ brilliant doctor, the disease goes into remission and De Niro’s character, who had been immobile for years due to his condition, recovers normal physical functions including speech ability.

He even falls in love with someone. However, the illness begins to relapse again leading to loss of everything that had been regained earlier on during treatment period. In “At First Sight,” Val Kilmer stars as Virgil a blind man that meets Mira Sorvino’s character whom he later develops romantic feelings towards before eventually finding out about Bruce Davison’s ophthalmologist who might help him regain eyesight through surgical methods.

Amy is an architect from New York City; she left her previous relationship because “For five years I’ve lived with a guy whose emotional IQ was equivalent to soap dish.” She goes on vacation at some resort town where there is a forest pond being used for ice skating purposes by one person alone. This catches her attention so much such that afterwards when hiring masseuse services without knowing it turns out being provided by none other than blind male called Virgil (Kilmer). Tears roll down Amy’s cheeks while hugging relief

Virgil is a native of the city, he knows all places around, he can tell how many steps it takes to walk through them and he is on friendly terms with everybody. He has an elder sister Jennie (Kelly McGillis) who tends to be overprotective towards him. She perceives Amy as a danger: “We’re happy here, Amy. Everything Virgil needs is here.” But they keep walking together with Amy and talking about different things and making love. At some point Virgil wants to move to New York City because there’s a doctor whom Amy thinks could help him get his sight back.

The film reaches its peak when it focuses on blindness itself and their relationship in general. Once they hide from the rain he realizes the space around by hearing the sound of the rain outside. His speeches are full of sweet irony; second time meeting her he says: “I was describing you to my dog, and how well you smelled.”

All this is done exactly right, Kilmer and Sorvino create definite intimate connection between these two people they have their own private world where communication comes easily for them. However every studio movie must inject false melodrama at any possible turn so this one has a fake, unconvincing separation scene followed by bringing into play Virgil’s long-lost father whose presence doesn’t make any difference except that it gives rise to some soap opera psychology scenes.

At the end credits we are informed that “this film is based on true events in Atlanta involving Shirl and Barbara Jennings”. I suppose all those true to life moments were inspired by their story while other millions were borrowed from various sources like in most cases: obviously if only screenwriter let it happen naturally without interfering too much material speaks for itself!

Every single plot point gets repeated through dialogue accompanied by explanations just so viewers wouldn’t miss out anything important which according to me should not be necessary at all. So watching such movie makes you wonder why Irwin Winkler did not trust his audience to be smarter than he thought they were; it deserved better treatment than this simple “disease-of-the-week docudrama” style.

Watch At First Sight For Free On Gomovies.