Movie Review: Not much to see in All I See Is You
Who would not want someone who looks like Blake Lively to be his trophy wife?
Jason Clarke's James is the lucky fellow married to Gina - the perfect spouse, submissive and completely dependent on her husband.
So what if she is blind? It makes James, a control freak and egomaniac, happy.
"You are not how I imagined," she says to him matter-of-factly when she sees him for the first time after her cornea replacement surgery.
Little does she know that this simple sentence creates cracks in the marriage, and the situation worsens when James slowly loses control over Gina.
Lively once again proves she is more than a pretty face. She excelled in survival thriller The Shallows (2016), but that was a reactionary film.
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STARRING: Blake Lively, Jason Clarke
DIRECTOR: Marc Forster
THE SKINNY: Gina (Lively) follows husband James (Clarke) to start a new life in Bangkok. Blind since a horrific childhood accident, she gets a new lease of life after a successful experimental eye surgery. But the couple's rosy relationship soon starts to deteriorate.
RATING: R21
Here, she shows restraint and depth as one who is living in the shadows.
She also performs with much honesty and gusto after Gina regains partial sight, when she finally gets to see herself for the first time and is given a chance to live her life.
There are some issues in this erotic thriller that director Marc Forster wants to address, but the execution is wanting.
What makes a happy marriage?
Does love mean controlling a person or setting her free?
It does not help that these vital questions are never raised: How did Gina and James meet? How long have they been married? What is their love story?
The black hole just gets bigger and weirder, and it makes you feel even more distant from the characters.
Rating: 2.5 stars
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