Blind Dating (2007/Fox DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Film: C

 

 

Can you do a comedy about a blind man dating and make it work?  James Keach tries with his 2007 feature called Blind Dating and the results are not great, have many problems and are often outright bad.  This is about to become a curio title as the lead, Chris Pine, is about to become James Kirk in the latest attempt to revive the Star Trek franchise.  He is good here, holding his own as best he can under the circumstances.

 

Playing blind-from-birth Danny, he becomes the leading candidate for an experimental procedure that would allow him to see images for the first time in his life thanks to a doctor (Stephen Tobolowsky) that involves an implant in the brain.  In the meantime, he has a supportive family and a good group of friends as he tries is still “one of the guys” just living his life.

 

The comedy part stems from blind jokes and all the wacky women he tries to date, none of whom work out, until he falls for a fill-in secretary (Anjali Jay) at his doctor’s office who also likes him, but is stuck going through with an arranged marriage.  The rest of the film becomes obvious, but the blind jokes and encounters with women are badly done to the point of embarrassment and the whole thing implodes.  Poor Jane Seymour plays his psychiatrist, who starts stripping to seduce him despite him being blind.  That is how dumb this gets and often.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is soft and looks like an HD shoot with its usual limitations, but is watchable.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 has an unconvincing soundfield as if this mix was an afterthought, recorded to above average standards if not much more.  Extras include deleted scenes, trailer and behind the scenes featurette.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo