(1999)
2
Lisa Kropiewnicki
Although leading man Val Kilmer gives a fascinating, dead-on performance as Virgil, a blind man who deals with the unexpected consequences of restored sight, Academy Award-winning actress Mira Sorvino is disappointingly bland as his love interest, coming across as too naive and kittenish (maybe it's the mini-skirt suits) to convincingly portray a driven New York architect. Director Irwin Winkler fails to capitalize on the opportunity for some remarkable visuals as Virgil sees the world for the first time. An uninspired script features an overdose of melodrama, too much on-the-nose dialogue, and an interesting character subplot with Virgil's father, played by Ken Howard, that goes nowhere. The idea of a blind man relating to the world visually is an intriguing one for a feature film, but the character development in this romantic drama needs some focus of its own. For better execution of a film based of one of Dr. Oliver Sacks' medical stories, check out Awakenings (1990), which garnered three Academy Award nominations.
At First Sight on AllMovie
At First Sight (1999)
