Hysterical Blindness

Starring:Uma Thurman, Gena Rowlands, Juliette Lewis, Justin Chambers, Ben Gazzara, Anthony DeSando, Jolie Peters, Callie Thorne, Jeff Aaron, Jeff Chena, Laura Cahill, Susan Isaacs, Wade Mylius, Bobby Tisdale, Susan Varon, Ali Marsh, Charles LaPlaca, Lisa Altomare, Russell Gibson (II), Jayne Haynes
Director: Mira Nair
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Uma Thurman is painful to watch in Hysterical Blindness--and that's a compliment. Thurman completely gives herself over to her trashy character, a pathetically self-deluding good-time girl who hangs out in a tavern in Bayonne, New Jersey, circa 1987. She occupies the bar stool next to her best bud (a dead-on Juliette Lewis), willing herself to believe that an obviously indifferent pick-up is Mr. Right. Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) directed this familiar but nicely-rendered HBO production; her visual style, full of obscured sightlines and opaque glass, emphasizes the heroine's inability to see clearly. Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara, as Thurman's mom and her gentleman suitor, add an echo of Cassavetes realism. But it's Thurman's tour de force, capturing the kind of lost soul whose idea of first-date chat is to break an awkward silence by boasting about her best sexual skill. She will make you cringe. --Robert Horton

Description

Uma Thurman and Juliette Lewis, two of today's most sensational actresses, tackle what it was to be single in the 80's in a new movie with a terrific 80's soundtrack. It's 1987 in Bayonne, New Jersey. The bars are full and smoky and Debby (Thurman) and Beth (Lewis) are out looking for a good time. Debby is searching for the kind of love they sing about in songs, the kind that lasts forever. What she can't see is that most guys are only looking for a love that lasts one night. From Mira Nair, director of Monsoon Wedding and Mississippi Masala.

Customer Reviews:

What A Fresh, Well Acted Film.......2007-05-28

This movie shows a side of human behavior I've never seen in cinema before, but have indeed in life. Uma Thurman, Juliette Lewis, and Gena Rowlands give nuanced, believable performances that suck you in to what is essentially a character piece. The story is thin, but that doesn't matter because we can all relate to what the characters are going through. It concerns 2 best friends (Uma and Juliette) and their quest for love at their local hangout, the neighborhood bar. We all know how hopeless, futile and tragic that is. Great slice of life film.

I cannot believe this movie hasn't been more critiically acclaimed.......2007-01-28

I just cannot understand how this movie didn't get critically acclaimed. It is an amazing piece. At times cringingly reminiscent of my own mistakes in my youth, but an extraodinary script and the most amazing acting story.

It is about two women, 'pushing thirty' as it says in the blurb above. The difference here is that they have never grown up into adult relationships, they are searching for something which they think is an adult relationship, but searching in the same places, the bar the have always gone to. The men are all just the same, and everything is towards a casual one night stand.

It is set in the mid 1980's, the hair is Jersey-big, the jeans skinny stretch stove pipes and the accents nasal whines. But Juliette Lewis and Uma thurmas utterly pin their characters down. They are helped along but an extraodinary script and great direction. The neediness Uma Thurman's character, at once picky and judging, the next whining and needy, and then in another moment, coquettishly naive. I am not normally a fan of Juliette Lewis but she absolutely takes this character, the lost dreamer, and makes it her own. She is almost stifled by her need to help Uma's character, and support her own daughter, that her own life becomes crushed (willingly it seems) beneath everything else.

I bought the DVD in the end because I found it so powerful and multilayered that I wanted to see it a few more times and watch the extraodinary relationships and subtle subtexts of the movie.

If you want to watch something that really show cases these talents, and yet does it without grandstanding you will enjoy this. It is very much a story of hope, and if nothing else it has a great 80's sound track!

I LOVE this movie...the 80's feel and the cast are top notch.......2006-12-28

"Hysterical Blindness" Is such a good movie because its so accurate and honest plus the performances are amazing.
Uma Thurman Plays Debbie an insecure young woman whos life revolves around the neighborhood bar "Ollies " She and Her best friend Beth played by the equally talented Julliett Lewis haunt Ollies looking for mr right only to find that he isn't there.
Thurman's portrayal of the desperate, promiscuous Debbie is heart wrenching but amazing to watch. .The always wonderful Gena Rowlands who also gives an exellent and endearing performance as Debbies mom Virginia a waitress at the local diner who meets a man played by Ben Gazzara and falls in love only to have love woes of her own.
Some of the scenes with Debbie "Uma" and Rick played by the sexy Justin Chambers "whom she meets at Ollies" are painful to watch and make you feel embarrassed for her because of the way she throws herself at him and almost begs him to love her.
The reason I love the movie so much besides the script and cast are the soundtrack and the dead on accuracy the director captures of the mid 80's also it reminds me of myself and my best girlfriend when we would go out and run straight to the ladies room check our selves spray our hair apply more make up then strut out like 2 peacocks and get our drink on. I highly recommend this movie it has something for everyone ,I watch it atleast 5 times a year.

live for the moment.......2006-12-21

This movie is emotional and real. The characters are ones that you can understand and at times seem to be the mirror image of you. Uma's drive to be in a relationship clouds her mind to what is going on around her. As the movie progresses you see how low and desperate this drive can be and when she hits rock bottom it is a pain that you can emphasize with. The end show that you have to enjoy life for what you have and not for what you don't have. Her desperation and jealousy lead her to be "blind" to what is going on around her. She doesn't share the joy that is around her and as a result she is bitter. This movie is a must have for anyone that has ever been though this or felt that way. By watching her mistakes one can see how damaging those feelings and actions are.

Thurman knocks it out of the park. .......2006-05-26

She , Debby, could have used some good advice. Borrowing from Jacqueline Carey, you can't find love where it isn't and you can't hide love where it is, this film tells a story of a pathetic woman who just doesn't see too clearly. She has bouts of blindness and the doctor has told her it is caused by stress. She is absolutely desperate, completely so, and so blind to her own circumstances that it takes a bartender to tell her that she "don't see things to good". She's just pitiful throwing herself at, what her dumb friend can plainly see, is a mean guy, just because he has "Patrick Swayze eyes". She throw's it all out in front of him, making a total and complete jerk of herself, and he uses her and proceeds to get rid of her right away and she's so wild with desperation that she actually thinks there is something there.

Debby's proud of her special parking spot by the bar, like that makes her special. She's proud of her Camaro, like that makes her special. She pulls out all the stops to get what she needs, but the problem is, she's grasping like a drowning person. EVERYONE CAN SEE IT! BUT HER! SHE'S HYSTERICALLY BLIND! Uma does such a fine, painful job of portraying this character, that it just makes you ache for her. I wanted to have a talk with her and explain to her what everyone else can plainly see, I wanted to be her friend, and then I remembered this is a movie! I love it when a movie can make me forget I am watching a movie.

I found it odd when Ben Gazzara's character told her he could see that she was smart. She really liked that but she seemed pretty stupid, so I don't know if that line was meant to show that Gazzara's character's kindness or if it meant something deeper, but if it did it was lost on me. Maybe she was a smart woman trapped in an emotionally blind woman's body. Another thing I wondered was the bridge in the background. I looms over the characters like a dark cage trapping them all into this dismal existance, at the same time being the only way out.

Some people found this movie humorous but I didn't find it funny at all. I thought it
was dark and painful but the honesty of it simply overwhelmed me. Uma and Juliette, two of my favorites, deliver powerful performances. If it was a budget movie, they certainly didn't waste their money on stars. Gena Rowlands may have been a little too classy for the role, if there was any problems at all with casting. I think she had a hard time bringing it down, which I know Gena can do because I've seen her do it in other films. Her clothes were a little too expensive looking to represent most old waitresses I have known, but that isn't her fault, is it?

This is a great movie if you're interested in serious acting talent.

Average customer rating:

What A Fresh, Well Acted Film
I cannot believe this movie hasn't been more critiically acclaimed
I LOVE this movie...the 80's feel and the cast are top notch
live for the moment
Thurman knocks it out of the park.

Hysterical Blindness [Region 2]
Starring: Uma Thurman , Gena Rowlands , Juliette Lewis , Justin Chambers , and Ben Gazzara
Director: Mira Nair
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00019HORC