Hysterical Blindness (2002)

Finding love in New Jersey

This is a movie made for HBO TV, but the cast is great: Uma Thurman, Juliette Lewis and Gena Rowlands all three fine actresses who deliver great performances in this film by Mira Nair. We meet two young women who are life long friends. One has a child by her first love, while the other one has never been married or had a meaningful relationship. Both are desperate to find love, get married and have a real family. The problem is that they are trying too hard and they are going to the wrong places such as "Ollie's Bar" where guys care only for one night stand, not for a commitment. As film is progressing, we learn that they are really searching for their fathers since that seems to be the common thread for all of them. They have fathers who have abandoned families when these women were young teenagers and that experience has definitely left an emotional mark on them. The mother-daughter relationships are also complicated and director is not afraid to explore that side too. This is not a "chick flick" but rather a movie about complicated inner lives of cross generational women. Great cast and acting. June 23, 2008

A demanding role nailed!

I cannot say enough about the performances of Thurman and Lewis in this wonderful character study set in the late 1980s. Thurman nailed her character -- a lonely working girl who spent her nights in a bar looking for love. I ached to hear her struggle to connect on any level with the guy who took her home for nothing more than sex on his living room floor. In desperation to hang onto this man, Thurman heartbreakingly begs to make him breakfast, which he refuses, then asks to make him a dinner of fillet mignon. Lewis is pefect as the too-young mother whose sense of socializing is stalled at age 16. Kudos to the make-up and stylists, too. The raccoon-smudged eyeliner and stringy hair punctuated by overcurled bangs was perfect. Thurman and Lewis are two very gifted actors July 23, 2007

What A Fresh, Well Acted Film

This movie shows a side of human behavior I've never seen in cinema before, but have indeed in life. Uma Thurman, Juliette Lewis, and Gena Rowlands give nuanced, believable performances that suck you in to what is essentially a character piece. The story is thin, but that doesn't matter because we can all relate to what the characters are going through. It concerns 2 best friends (Uma and Juliette) and their quest for love at their local hangout, the neighborhood bar. We all know how hopeless, futile and tragic that is. Great slice of life film. May 28, 2007

I cannot believe this movie hasn't been more critiically acclaimed

I just cannot understand how this movie didn't get critically acclaimed. It is an amazing piece. At times cringingly reminiscent of my own mistakes in my youth, but an extraodinary script and the most amazing acting story.

It is about two women, 'pushing thirty' as it says in the blurb above. The difference here is that they have never grown up into adult relationships, they are searching for something which they think is an adult relationship, but searching in the same places, the bar the have always gone to. The men are all just the same, and everything is towards a casual one night stand.

It is set in the mid 1980's, the hair is Jersey-big, the jeans skinny stretch stove pipes and the accents nasal whines. But Juliette Lewis and Uma thurmas utterly pin their characters down. They are helped along but an extraodinary script and great direction. The neediness Uma Thurman's character, at once picky and judging, the next whining and needy, and then in another moment, coquettishly naive. I am not normally a fan of Juliette Lewis but she absolutely takes this character, the lost dreamer, and makes it her own. She is almost stifled by her need to help Uma's character, and support her own daughter, that her own life becomes crushed (willingly it seems) beneath everything else.

I bought the DVD in the end because I found it so powerful and multilayered that I wanted to see it a few more times and watch the extraodinary relationships and subtle subtexts of the movie.

If you want to watch something that really show cases these talents, and yet does it without grandstanding you will enjoy this. It is very much a story of hope, and if nothing else it has a great 80's sound track!

January 27, 2007

I LOVE this movie...the 80's feel and the cast are top notch

"Hysterical Blindness" Is such a good movie because its so accurate and honest plus the performances are amazing.
Uma Thurman Plays Debbie an insecure young woman whos life revolves around the neighborhood bar "Ollies " She and Her best friend Beth played by the equally talented Julliett Lewis haunt Ollies looking for mr right only to find that he isn't there.
Thurman's portrayal of the desperate, promiscuous Debbie is heart wrenching but amazing to watch. .The always wonderful Gena Rowlands who also gives an exellent and endearing performance as Debbies mom Virginia a waitress at the local diner who meets a man played by Ben Gazzara and falls in love only to have love woes of her own.
Some of the scenes with Debbie "Uma" and Rick played by the sexy Justin Chambers "whom she meets at Ollies" are painful to watch and make you feel embarrassed for her because of the way she throws herself at him and almost begs him to love her.
The reason I love the movie so much besides the script and cast are the soundtrack and the dead on accuracy the director captures of the mid 80's also it reminds me of myself and my best girlfriend when we would go out and run straight to the ladies room check our selves spray our hair apply more make up then strut out like 2 peacocks and get our drink on. I highly recommend this movie it has something for everyone ,I watch it atleast 5 times a year.
December 28, 2006

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