Based on a true story by Oliver Sachs, M.D. called “To See or Not See,” this engrossing Irwin Winkler film captures the eerie feeling of how a blind person experiences his own tactile world and struggles to relate to a sighted person’s world. It is not a simple, sappy love story. If you choose to only watch it from a sighted person’s perspective, then that is what you’ll expect and all you will feel is frustration as Amy, played fetchingly by Mira Sorvino, feels when she tries to develop a relationship with Val Kilmer’s exquisite portrayal of Virgil, the blind masseuse at the spa she visits.

The movie encourages us to see it through Virgil’s eyes, which for most of the perhaps two hour movie (I watched it twice, not noticing the time) is through his other senses and his heart, for when it opens it’s getting dark and Virgil is tieing his ice skates on at the edge of a frozen pond. I knew he was blind from the review of the movie, but if I hadn’t known, I probably wouldn’t have guessed. He looks like a cat with cream as he contemplates (in his mind) his private ice rink.

The Story

After we are introduced to Virgil, we meet Amy who is a busy New York City architect still working with her ex-husband brought to us believably, but rather forgettably, by Steven Weber. Overworked and exhausted, she checks out of her office and into a spa outside the city, although not before she notices a skater (Virgil) on the pond.

They meet when she signs up for a massage the next two days. Soon the emotions come out after a deep body massage and his caring voice soothes her. This is what she has been needing and so quickly initiates a friendship after she wakes up and hurries after him. She then discovers to his surprise that he’s blind and his interest is further piqued. They walk around the “geriatric” town, as he put it, and show each other how they “see” what they see. It is a lovely experience I’ll be sure to remember the next time it rains against my window.

The story picks up when Amy calls the leading eye surgeon on the East Coast and tells Virgil he wants to see him. Understandably the blind man rejects her help at first, but when he thinks about losing Amy, he changes his mind. The movie wants us to believe it is not just physical desire between them, especially noticeable with the way they make love with their hands touching each other’s faces and everywhere. They smile while doing so which at least one female reviewer complained about for its unbelievability factor.

What a shame that smiling during lovemaking has become old-fashioned and disturbing to some people, as if lovers aren’t supposed to have fun!

Suddenly after the retinal operation, his vision flits in and out with images and bright lights that horrify Virgil who has been blind since he was a year old and has no visual memory except one. He remembers something puffy, which turns out to be cotton candy. After days of learning to live with his new sighted world, filled with poignant moments of discovering the beauty of his own face in a mirror, the colorful sights and sounds of a city, his father who abandoned him and, of course, the nude form of Amy, he then realizes something is wrong and the doctor confirms it. The retinosis has come back to soon leave him blind again.

The last thing he does with Amy as a sighted person is go to a hockey game where he sees the puffy thing, cotton candy, and buys one. It represented the only good sighted memory he had while he was blind because it was his last good time with his Dad. Now he has the disappointing memory of his Dad’s face and he’d rather have the old good memory back. You can tell that by his childish wonder of the cotton candy.

The movie doesn’t end there. They both need to deal with Virgil’s impending blindness and their frustration in not understanding each other’s needs erupts with all the tension that has been building. He goes back to his town where his older sister, Kelly McGillis in a challenging, heartrending role, can take care of his meals and him again.

Does he stay there, though, taking up his old life and seeing-eye dog? You’ll have to watch the movie to find out, okay? :-)

Final Commentary

I have spoken with blind people and Kilmer’s slow way of talking and the way he holds his head and smiles a lot as Virgil reminds me of Stevie Wonder. Not only did Kilmer look the part, but he acted like I think a blind person would, which only continued after he miraculously regained his sight. As this movie is based on a doctor’s real-life case, it is a fascinating journey of a blind man’s progress into and out of the sighted world. His surgeon and ultimately Virgil report to other eye surgeons on what he is going through.

At First Sight takes you where no other movie I know of takes you. Winkler seems to have been passionately faithful to the doctor’s story, but I’m definitely going to look for it and “see what I see.” I enjoyed everybody’s performances and could understand where both Virgil and Amy were coming from, which is the only way to watch it really, but if you only see it from one perspective, please make it Virgil’s.

Otherwise you will become impatient with how the movie wants you to see more than an impulsive, desperate, sappy love story. You see, stressed-out Amy is blind in a different way, not able to see the beauty in herself or life, and you don’t want to be blind like her, do you? So go see this fine movie...and watch it as if you have been blind like Virgil all your life, but sees what is really important..


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older