Blindness is the adaptation of Jose Saramago's eponymous novel. A plague causing blindness slowly begins to infect people all over the world. As the inexplicable sickness spreads, the authorities being using more and more drastic measures to try an contain it.
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The hero of the story is a doctor's wife (Moore). She is mysteriously unaffected by the disease, even as her husband (Ruffalo) goes blind as well. When the doctor is taken to a abandoned prison now serving as a makeshift quarantine, she lies and says she is blind as well in order to be close to her husband.
Soon, more and more confused infected people are brought in, and news from the outside world paints a grim picture of chaos and panic. The inmates are left more or less to fend for themselves, occasional supplies being the only outside help. Conditions quickly deteriorate in the confined space, which brings out the best and worst of human nature. As some people, including the doctor and his wife, try to help and comfort the other, one man (Bernal) assumes authority, proclaiming himself the king of ward 3. He and his helpers confiscate all the supplies and demand sexual favors in exchange. The situation reaches its boiling point when the doctor's wife, keeping her sight a secret, manages to kill the would-be king. A fire breaks out and many die in the mayhem.
The few survivors, led by the doctor and his wife, discover that no one had been guarding them anymore. Society and government have collapsed. In the face of all this desperation, the group resolve to survive in this new world. As they gather at the doctor's house, a cause for hope comes into sight.
Best part of story, including ending:
The story places a microcosm of humanity within a confined space, and using the narrative device of the blindness disease, explores the more extreme nature of humans. When free from society's constraints, the lines between good and bad become blurred. The story suggests that human connection and empathy is the path to take.
Best scene in story:
When the futility of the situation becomes unbearable for the doctor, and he succumbs to a basic urge, having sex with a woman in the ward. There's a very sad tone, the feeling is of an act born out of depression more than anything else.
Opinion about the main character:
The doctor's wife is put in the unique position of being both an observer and a participant. Her ability to see objectively gives her power over everyone else, and their fate hangs upon her moral choices.
