"Blind Dating"

So, Monday night we watched “Blind Dating”. It is officially a romantic comedy, but most of the film was far from funny. In fact a lot of the film is gloomy, as Danny gets really emo (though not as bad as Cloud Strife). The worst part is that he gets that way because he can’t stand being rejected by Leeza, the girl who basically led him on even while knowing that she couldn’t be with him because she was already spoken for (technically about to go through with an arranged marriage). Yeah, we don’t like Leeza. Anyway, he took it personally, thinking she dumped him because he was blind. Yada yada yada, not really all that interesting.

There are a number of problems with this movie.

Considering the tone of the last half of the movie the overly happy, incredibly unrealistic ending just doesn’t mesh. Leeza’s family suddenly accepts Danny, and everyone dances together? Please. And then there’s the dialogue. Leeza seriously says “Who knows, if you could see me, you might not even like me.” Ugh. We don’t even want to talk about it anymore. Finally, you get a number of cliche moments like blind guy pretending not to be blind (No one notices until he tells them!!), blind guy successfully crosses busy street, typical Italian family (except Danny who looks nothing like the rest), traditional Indian family (girl going through an arranged marriage to a total jerk), and the list goes on and on. So if that does not sound cool to you then don’t watch this movie. You have been warned.

Oh and btw, there is actually literal blind dating in the film, but not as much as you might think. These dates make up some of the funniest parts of the movie, as the girls are always far from normal. However, contrary to what the trailer suggests, these dates are not really central to the plot, and are soon lost in all of the other drama. Which brings us to our next point, the movie is way too dramatic. It’s as if the writers couldn’t decide what they really wanted to do, so they piled in a bunch of stuff. Danny gets a chance to cure his blindness, he has to fall in love with the one girl who is about to be married, deal with and overcome her rejection (because he can’t be happy otherwise), and he has to only go on dates with crazy girls. Seriously, how much crap does one guy have to go through? Instead of making the movie more interesting, it just continually becomes more and more unrealistic, and long before you get to the climax you stare at the screen, scratching your head, saying to yourself “really?” Perhaps “Blind Dating” truly is a comedy, except you start laughing at it and not with it. Why oh why, could this not be the simple story of a blind man trying to find normal, uncomplicated love? Is that so hard? Was all the drama really necessary?      

This movie has some really special moments.

A happy moment for the audience is when Danny goes through with the surgery and it is a success. That moment quickly dissipates as the doctor gives him the seeing-eye glasses. This is guaranteed to cause you to burst out laughing. They are a pair of typical, bad nineties sunglasses with a weird, mechanical doo dad over one lens. They were something straight out of a low-budget, SyFy made for TV movie.

That is not to say that there weren’t good things about the movie.

A weird but appreciated part of the movie is Danny’s therapist, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. (She is actually played by Jane Seymour) She genuinely cares for him but encounters a slight problem: she cannot seem to keep her clothes on around him. Though we do not blame her; there is a large possibility ours would be coming off too. Realistic…no, understandable…maybe. 

His best friend is Jay, one of the best friends ever! He even plays Beep Baseball with Danny, which is difficult by the way. This is coming from experience. He had a nice smile and cheerful disposition. He and Danny even scammed money from the basketball players at the park together. What are best friends for, Yeeeeaaah…

What should have happened:

There’s no need for all the bull crap in the middle. Let’s stick to the plot. Honestly, we feel it would have benefited the movie for Danny’s brother, Larry, to have had an epiphany. Like “Hey maybe my sensitive, nice brother doesn’t like the same girls as sleazy, promiscuous me.” And then Larry would have gone out of his way to ask a girl he knew didn’t like him to go on a date with his brother. And the date would have gone well because she would have been a normal person! She and Danny would hit it off, and he would have had to choose between normal date girl and Leeza, if you even need Leeza at all. Honestly the movie is called “Blind Dating” and it isn’t even about that…not really.  

RECAP: 

PROS: 

It does have some genuinely funny moments

Chris Pine does a believable job of acting blind and is generally adorable

Danny’s attractive friend Jay (played by Marion H. Hall Jr.)

CONS:

Way too dramatic. 

Impossible to sympathize with love-interest, Leeza (played by Anjali Jay)

The glasses ::shudder::

There are times when the dialogue is seriously weak

Happy Hollywood ending doesn’t mesh with plot progression of the film

VERDICT:

Not horrible, but wouldn’t watch again unless we got paid for it. 

Still, way better than any Lifetime Movie Original.

We give it 2 hearts, a Joaquin Phoenix