Product Description

A blind woman, whose sight has only recently been restored, thinks she's witnessed a brutal murder. Starring Madeline Stowe and Aidan Quinn. Directed by Michael Apted. Year: 1994 Director: Michael pted Starring: Madeleine Stowe, Aidan Quinn, James Remar

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23664 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2003-10-07
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.com
One of those iffy medical thrillers, about the aftereffects of corneal transplants on a blind musician (Madeleine Stowe). Doctors tell her that until the transplant fully takes she'll only be seeing shadowy images--and even then, she'll see things that will take a while to register on her brain. Which is troublesome when she witnesses a murder but can't quite make sense of what she's seen. Because the images only become clear after the fact, she can't put them in the kind of chronological order that will make her a useful eyewitness for investigating police detective Aidan Quinn. Toss in a romance between Quinn and Stowe, mix in appropriate dollops of suspense, and you wind up with a fairly mediocre mystery by director Michael Apted, enlivened only by the chemistry between the two leads. --Marshall Fine

From The New Yorker
Emma Brody (Madeleine Stowe), who plays fiddle in a Chicago band, is sharp, independent, and sexually wise; she is also blind, which in movie code means "vulnerable.'' And so, after a funny and suggestive start, Michael Apted's thriller slowly goes about its business of turning her into a victim. Emma has her vision restored in an operation, and is immediately rewarded with the sight of a murder suspect. With the villain on her trail, a cop named Hallstrom (Aidan Quinn) is assigned to protect her, a standard setup for falling in love. "Blink'' is a dud romance, and it feels pretty ordinary as a thriller-the time is right, surely, for a moratorium on serial killers. Nevertheless, the movie remains in touch with fascinating feelings: the blind Emma has a kind of enclosed strength that seems to leak away as she adjusts to the visible world. It should have been an ideal part for Stowe, who is gathering pace with every film; add this one to "Short Cuts'' and "Last of the Mohicans,'' and you sense a woman swaying between a full heart and a controlling wit. But Apted never gives her the space she needs; only in a few scenes, aided by the smart and reliable Laurie Metcalf, does she really open our eyes. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Above average thriller
As thrillers go this is above average. True, the premise is a "been there, done that" sort of thing with a romance between the detective and the potential victim with a serial killer in the shadows, etc. However there is just enough originality here added to solid performances by the stars to make it worthwhile.

Aidan Quinn (no relation to Anthony) plays a cute and quirky detective in the Windy City on the trail of a budding serial killer. Madeleine Stowe is a blue grass/Irish violinist blind since she was eight. As the movie opens she is about to get cornea transplants, and before long she can see, sort of, which is important since she has become a witness to murder. Some of what she sees are flashbacks to the day before, which makes her a problem witness for the police. Some other flashbacks are to when her mother smashed her face into a mirror for playing with her make-up. How sick is that? I presume this was dreamed up by Dana Stevens, who gets credit for the script, which is a kind of mishmash of clever lines and shlock dialogue as though two different people (or half a dozen) wrote it.

Michael Apted's direction is not inspired although it isn't all that bad either. But he doesn't develop the serial killer's personality, and so the weirdo's motivation seems a bit of a stretch. Also undeveloped is the doctor whose love for Stowe is unrequited. The main thing is the erotic chemistry between Stowe and Quinn, and the personality of Stowe's character, which is original and the best thing in the movie. I think this would have received a better reception had Quinn's character fallen in madly in love with the violinist. As it plays, we are not sure whether he really cares or not.

Madeleine Stowe is sexy and does a good job in a demanding role, probably the most demanding of her modest career. See it for her.

I SEE YOU...SORT OF
A brilliant performance from Madeline Stowe elevates BLINK in an otherwise slow moving, at times muddled, movie. Stowe plays a blind violinist who receives a corneal transplant that results in her having delayed perceptions, that is seeing things that may have happened a day or so before. This involves her in the murder of a young woman who lives above her, and ultimately brings her to meet Aidan Quinn, an egotistical young detective, who is assigned to the case, and ultimately ends up falling in love with her.
Michael Apted's direction sometimes gets in the way of true suspense, the middle of the movie seeming to slow down, and the killings take second place to the love affair. A red herring is thrown in and you might swallow it, but the identity of the killer once revealed may come as a surprise.
Stowe and Quinn have a good chemistry and good support comes from James Remar and Peter Friedman, but it is Madeleine's marvelous performance that enlightens this film.

Uncommonly Good Performances
It's true that the story may stretch your willingness to believe at times (though it seems that the "delayed vision" phenomena is accurate), what makes this a really good movie is the quality of the acting. Aidan Quinn and Madeline Stowe create real people in this movie - people you could readily run into on the northside of Chicago. There isn't a false note to their performance. The same can also be said for the supporting work of James Remar.

Add to the quality of the performances the visual feel of the movie - Michael Apted has put together solid visual effects with a great and realistic vision of Chicago. This isn't the standard lakeshore/magnificant mile plus generic city that you usually see. This is the Chicago of the neighborhoods.

Finally, the music for this movie introduced me to The Drovers - a Chicago band that is absolutely brilliant. If you're anything like me, the day after you watch this, you'll be out hunting their cd's.