At First Sight (1999)

When I saw the average rating of 5. something, on this site, I thought oh well maybe I'll watch it anyway since I like Mira Sorvino and it was based on a real man's story. Also it was free on a channel I have cause it was older:), but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Not an Oscar winner or anything but very well done story about a man blind since a young child, who went through some unpleasant treatments to help him regain his sight that didn't work. Now an adult, very used to being blind, he meets a young woman whom he likes, and she likes him too. She hears about a new surgery to help him regain his vision and wants him to try it, but his sister, who has been there for him his whole life helping him survive the sighted world, objects. His father left the family early on, and hasn't been in contact with him at all! He has to adjust his life drastically, and the movie shows all the pitfalls of suddenly seeing things and not always knowing what to do.It was pretty well acted, I thought, and made me want to find out more about the real man. All in all, well worth watching.

Irwin Winkler's "At First Sight" stars Val Kilmer and Mira Sorvino as a couple of lovers. He's a blind masseuse, she's an architect, and together then embark on a journey rife with back rubs, kissing and cuddling.The film's first act does well to sketch the difficulties of the visually impaired. By its second act, however, Kilmer's blindness is used as a hokey metaphor for the wisdom of the sightless, who are able to appreciate the oft overlooked subtleties of nature and womanhood. As such, Sorvino melts in Kilmer's arms, this dashing blind dude peering deep into her soul like no man with 20/20 vision ever could. Conventional? Yes, but Kilmer and Sorvino have good chemistry, and the film's "massage scenes" are interesting, Kilmer's generous hands practically spurring Sorvino to orgasm. If only, she thinks, all men saw as as Kilmer does.6/10 – Worth one viewing. See Minnelli's "The Clock".

Although it is a true story -that's what the final lines tell us ,revealing us what would become of the two characters- the movie resembles a Douglas Sirk melodrama.Of course ,it has not the strength of the great director's magnificent weepies ,but it is ,all in all ,a good melodrama .Mia Sorvino and Val Kilmer give charming performances but the stand-out is for me Kelly McGillis who made the best of another of these supporting parts she's too often relegated to.She portrays a generous sister who sacrificed her life to her blind brother.When he returns to his native town,the reunion with her is probably the best moment of the film.The story has also some Capra accents,notably the scene with the homeless man on the sidewalk.

I happened to come across this movie one night on cable. I have to say I'm sorry I didn't see it in the cinema. Val Kilmer did an excellent job playing a blind man, and the struggles it entails as he adjusts from his dark world, to a seeing one, and having to adjust to loosing it all again. I could't help but get wrapped up in his struggles to adjust, the frustration he feels when he tries to adjust to the seeing world and what Amy (Mira S) expects of him as his eyes begin to fail him once again. I was surprised to see, at the end of the movie, that it was based on a true story. Hats off to Val Kilmer for job well done - he was very believable.