A Sight for Sore Eyes

I was lucky enough to see this film as part of the 'shorts' program at the Wine Country festival, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys film, not just shorts. It's emotional but not in a cloying way, and the performances are all wonderful. I particularly liked the blind girl, she was moving without TRYING to be moving. Gary Busey was a nice surprise, I didn't expect him to come down off of his 'crazy' perch, but when he does it's really nice to witness.

Apparently they are trying to turn this into a feature, which I think is a great idea, as long as they don't recast the roles.

Shane Stanley directed this, and he did a marvelous job, I look forward to seeing more of him in the future.

I gotta say it, because no one else will. Did they do a love story on a blind person because it seems that any film focusing on the handicapped, retarded, musically challenged or simply someone who must overcome an eating disorder gets attention from the Academy or the independent film fanatics? Overall this film was enjoyable and very well done, but just when I thought I had seen all the Rainmen, My Left Foot's, Shine's and What's Eating Gilbet Grapes - Stanley comes along and adds this one to the pile of 'the world of the less fortunates.' The blind girl certainly stood her own, a memorable performance in the likes of Rush, Day Lewis & Hoffman in their roles as handicapped characters and Gary Busey was surrounded by fairly equal talent. All too often a known star jumps into a small film and completely takes you out of the moment or simply out-shines his fellow cast members. Not so here. In 'Sight' the male lead goes head-to-head with Busey in a very dramatic and well written scene and really holds his own against such a seasoned and intimidating actor, such as Busey.

If this isn't an attempt to fall in line with the high-end romance players, I don't know what is. In the vain of "Two Weeks Notice", "How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days" and "Why You Were Sleeping", this film pretty much covers all the above mentioned story lines but thankfully creeps into some originality with the girl's handicap. Unlike most films in this genre, Sight wraps it up in less than half an hour (it's a short) and with its high production value and good storyline you can't help but wonder how & why the studios are shelling out 40-60 million dollars on these simple "puppy-love" type flicks. Oh, in this film they didn't have Hugh Grant, Sandra Bullock or Kate Hudson so, I guess that answers that.

I would really like to have seen more in this film. Where is the taking advantage of the beautiful Latin girl who is in it for a few minutes. She is a sex symbol! And the lead girl was very hot as well and we see nothing about her in the sense of 'flesh.' There was many pretty women around and why have them if you're not going to show them for what they are. I was disappointed with all the pretty girls and no skin.

In A Sight For Sore Eyes you spend time with the main character and just as you get to the point where you really dislike him,(as a woman anyway) he finally hooks up with the female lead/love interest that turns him around. Amy (the girl) did a wonderful job as playing a blind girl and she comes in and makes him finally see true love. You really want these two to kiss and have a future together and just as they do he leaves a gentleman - something his character would not have done before. Sight has a nice turn of events, not too much a chick flick but it might appeal to us women a bit more.