***Warning Spoilers***
The
movie timeline flashes back and forth five years. We start at the end
where Malorie ~ played by Bullock ~ forcibly warns two kids ~ a boy and girl
~ that they must keep their blindfolds on because they are leaving the
house. If they don't they will die. The three of them hop in a row boat, with three birds in a shoe box, and start a two day journey down the
river.
Flashback to five
years ago when Malorie is a pregnant painter living alone in her rustic
studio and her sister ~ Jessica ~ visits with groceries and tells her about
the news. There's "mass suicides" in Russia and the UK. Malorie dismisses it to focus on her OBGYN appointment. She's a reluctant mother, and it's assumed that her old roommate is the father.
Jessica
drives Malorie to the appointment where she thinks about putting her
child up for adoption. As Malorie leaves the hospital, she sees a woman smashing her
head against a window. Then all hell breaks loose! Malorie gets in the
car with her sister. Jessica starts driving avoiding cars that are
running red lights and purposefully getting into accidents. Total chaos in the streets. Then Jessica
sees something and runs her car off the road. It flips over. Both women get
out and Jessica stands in traffic to get hit by a truck. It's disturbing
imagery since they show the impact as it happens.
Malorie is left wandering the road, getting pushed over by mobs of people
running until a woman from a house notices she's pregnant and goes outside to
meet her. The woman from the house sees her dead mother in a vision (we assume) and
commits suicide by going to sit in a burning car. Malorie gets inside
the safe house and is taken in by a bunch of panicked strangers with all
different backgrounds presumably in the same situation ~ avoiding
looking outside.
At this
point I'm intrigued. It has religious connotations with the world being
"cleansed" by other worldly beings? The victims see incredible sadness
before they kill themselves. Are they visions? Are the monster just reflecting a person's inner turmoil? It seems there's a
darkness and swooping sound along with whispering voices when the
monsters are near.
Flash
forward to Malorie and the kids on the river for 8 hours. She's still rowing.
She hears the voice of a man telling her she's safe and can take her
blindfold off. He's in the water without a blindfold. She doesn't trust
him, never takes hers off and stabs him. So now we know there are people
that can still "see" and live.
Back
at the safe house it's been three days and they are running out of
food. Another pregnant woman ends up on their doorstep. It's revealed that one of the people works in a supermarket and has keys to get inside. They
divide up, black out the windows in the car and use the GPS to guide
them. They stock up on everything and Malorie rescues three
caged birds. (Not sure why they are in a supermarket? Seems odd and
unsanitary.) There's one casualty and they get back to the house, only
to have the car stolen later by a couple in the house.
24
hours on the river (Malorie must have really prepped with a lot of
sleep beforehand to keep rowing by herself and to be up for so long!)
She hears wind chimes, docks the boat with the kids and goes exploring
for supplies.
Then 28 hours on the river, then 38 hours...
Flashback
to the house where they take in Gary who they think is sane but ends up
being able "to see it's beautiful, so beautiful...it shall cleanse the
world" and kills half of the people staying in the house while both
women are having babies at the same time. The survivors are Malorie, the
two kids, and Tom. They all become scavengers, Malorie and Tom become
lovers and raise the kids for five years.
Now
the timeline is caught up. We find out there are people outside that
don't use blindfolds and encourage everyone they meet to take them off
and see "it's a beautiful thing".
While stealing from a house, the family
encounters the un-blindfolded and they shoot Tom who then shoots them
and himself.
Malorie, the
kids, and the three birds get away and take the rowboat to a place they
hear of on the radio. Two days down the river,
through the rapids to a place where you follow the sound of the birds.
They surprisingly make it through the rapids, the forest, and the supernatural monsters to this sanctuary in the woods. Ta-da it's a school for the
blind! The school takes them in, the birds get set free, Malorie meets up with
her obgyn there and everyone is happy now.
You
never see the monsters. They are never shown or fleshed out, which was the whole reason I was watching AND
you never find out why some people need blindfolds and others don't. Are the visions demons to some and angels to others? Not sure.
Acting was really good considering the dialog was just ok, the story line was similar to A Quiet Place, the hearing impaired/
blind people come to the rescue of a mom who had to give birth either
silently or without looking outside. It has similarities to The Happening, but even then the mass suicides are explained
by a natural plague. Not explained here. Overall I'd give it 3.5 birds in a box out of 5....and Ginger was disappointed there weren't more birds in it.
Trailer...
0 comments: