At First Sight

The medical stories of Oliver Sacks evoke terror at the biological frailty of human consciousness, identity, and perception but offer the consolation of sentimentality. The Hollywood versions stick to the sentimentality. Like Penny Marshall's adaptation of Awakenings, Irwin Winkler's At First Sight poses profound neurological disorders as just another way to get a date.

The needy one here is Amy Benic (Mira Sorvino, demonstrating that it takes only a Mickey Mouse voice to win an Oscar), who's on leave from the architectural firm run by her ex-husband. She takes in a tony health spa, where she falls under the hands of masseur Virgil Adamson (Val Kilmer in a bizarre performance that combines Mister Rogers with Billy Bob Thornton's role in A Simple Plan). His knowing touch causes her to weep (there's a similar scene in Living Out Loud -- are masseurs the new route to women's empowerment on film?).

To Amy's surprise, she discovers Virgil is also blind -- in short, a perfect mate. Nonetheless, Amy urges Virgil to undergo a new treatment for his cataracts, and the result is restoration of his vision. Unfortunately, Virgil's neurological system has atrophied during his blindness, and he doesn't understand what he sees.

You can anticipate the facile plays on the words "looking," "seeing," and "vision" the movie is going to throw at you, especially when Nathan Lane pops up in the Robin Williams role as the feel-good therapist. At First Sight does show some power in the scene when the bandages are taken off and Virgil experiences the visual world as a violation. "This can't be seeing!" he screams. The filmmakers agree, and the rest of Sight is best unseen.

-- Peter Keough