Simply Perfect

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

"Imagine" took a while to make it here. The film already premiered in 2012 in the director's country and by now it has already reached the rest of the world. It's Andrzej Jakimowski's third movie, ten years after his first and five years after his second. We follow the paths of a blind man and woman. On a side-note is there anything worse than not being able to see the gorgeous Alexandra Maria Lara!? The most memorable thing about the movie, to me, (besides the occasionally stunning cinematography and landscapes) were the sound effects, which stood out a lot and made it easy even for people in the audience who are able to see to take a dive into the life of blind people. Our acoustic sense is emphasized a lot here and we can feel the different noises almost as vividly as the two main characters. The other besides Lara (probably the one being even more in the center) is played by Edward Hogg: Ian is a blind man teaching the blind with unorthodox methods that always seem to walk the fine line between greatness and danger, sometimes even cross it. Early on he says something like that his old boss really was in favor of his methods, but the new one did not approve at all. It's a nice summary. There's not really the option of indifference when it comes to his teaching style. It's either love or hate in a similar sense of Hugh Laurie's House M.D. His colleagues who are able to see tend to struggle occasionally as well with his mannerisms. Why is he not using a cane? He is blind, so he has to right? One of my favorite scenes even if it was s sad one was where he downright begs for his job and you can easily see that it's more for him than just a profession: it's his dedication. Alexandra Maria Lara gives a decent performance, which serves more as a love interest to the main character than as a showy character with extraordinary depth herself, but that's perfectly fine. I'm a bit uncertain about Melchior Derouet's Serrano though. To me he didn't do much and I have doubts about whether I just did not like the character (which would not be too bad) or did not like the way the actor played the character. In any case I probably could have done without his storyline. To me, he just felt rushed in so that there is a character who's different than all the other students and who is not too impressed by his teacher unlike all the others. It felt a bit just for the sake of it. The scene near the end with the giant ship was one of the weakest of the film in my opinion and this is where it gets a bit lost.About the end, there is as in so many cases no black and white, but something in between and everybody needs to decide for himself if it's a happy ending or not. A final approval goes to the children who played the blind characters. And did a very credible job doing so. I'm not sure if they were blind themselves or not, but in any case you could make a point for them delivering credible and convincing performances which probably weren't easy to come up with at all. Well done to the child actors.

Again, out of nothing I chose to watch to this movie that ended up being a fantastic immersion into a slow pace sensible reality.The technical features of the film, as intentional creations, say, the increased sounds of the environment are perfect; they invite you to be paying attention to details, no hurry, just feel.The script though is very simple and with no highly complex layers overlapping, a directional plot being unleashed to the end in a good rhythm. For these reasons, an 8 could be enough for rating, but I feel that for the urge for more sensible movies such as that, I can give it a 9. We are all looking at things, and never seeing nothing. ;)

Avoid like the plague.Just wanted to write a quick warning, so that you won't be deceived by the hype here, so far. On its favour, I can state the sensibility displayed and the noble cause. And, being a Lisboner myself, it is obviously a very beautiful, soulful and picturesque place to film. Nevertheless, the cinematographer Adam Bajerski did a very interesting job.OK, that's mostly it. The acting is terrifyingly dull. Starting right with the main actor - I mean, this guy couldn't act if his life depended on it. Cringeworthy. Alexandra Lara, while far from a top-class performer, shows more than enough chops when rightly directed (vide the superb Control). Not the case here. Of course the campy, rather pedestrian dialogue never helps. And its delivery feels ever so awkward, not for once natural or credible. People just don't talk like that. I don't even want to dwell much on the script problems, but why the hell would English, french (and even a German ex-pat) blind children be doing on such a far from luxurious institution in Lisbon? Certainly all the sun and light are not the best treatment for the blind-eye - probably explaining the high blindness rates. You'll very often find yourself bumping into a blind person, whilst walking the streets of Lisbon.To sum things up, in the hands of the right director this could have definitely been something. Keeping the moody slow rhythm and attention to sounds, but being more demanding with the extras and supporting actors. Even Ian's darker side should have been more wisely explored. Instead you are left with a slow movie, going nowhere, with a somewhat ridiculous script and with weakly handled tension scenes. You'd be better off driving that same 28 tram at the end of the movie and visiting a city far more interesting that its all-too-scenic display.

I saw this film thinking that i was going to see a typical drama movie, but instead i found a heart-warming lesson of life.He's a teacher who shows to the blind kids how to use their senses instead of their cane, and the funny thing is that he also is blind. He teaches the children to use their imagination to "see" the things around them, to sense with every part of their body without missing the things we usually overlooked because we are just looking not seeing. He later gets into some trouble for his particular way of teaching.I know this movie isn't gonna like to everybody, but you must give it a chance not just to see it but for the beautiful message in it.