At First Sight Release date: 30th April 1999 Val Kilmer Mira Sorvino Kelly McGillis Director: Irwin Winkler Screen Writer: Oliver Sacks, Steven Levitt III Details: 128 mins, PG
I was becoming a little worried that Val Kilmer might be fast turning into a typecast actor. He's been a drug debased rock star in The Doors, a drink infested gun-toting cowboy in Tombstone and more recently a gambling junky in Heat. Add to that the flying rodent obsessed figure of Batman and you have a line up of characters who would do well from a long break at the Jenny Craig clinic (Batman may require a little more help than the others) Imagine my relief when I discovered Kilmer's new role involved a blind man who regains his sight and falls in love - not a drug or obsessive compulsive characteristic in sight.
Unfortunately the change in character hasn't paid off and I find myself wondering if Kilmer isn't naturally suited to presenting surly, self absorbed roles. In At First Sight he plays Virgil Adamson an architect who, having been blind since birth, undergoes a miracle operation and suddenly finds he can see for the first time. The beautiful Mira Sorvino plays the workaholic architect, Amy Benic, who falls for Adamson and helps him reluctantly regain his sight. What should be a joyous event, however, soon turns sour as Adamson is forced to come to terms with a world of shape, colour and light which he cannot understand.
Happily the mushiness you'd expect from such a movie never really materializes and the story focuses more on Adamson's struggle to cope with his newfound world of visual perception than on the developing romance between him and Benic. Unhappily Kilmer's hot-headed narcissistic portrayal of Adamson's plight makes the gravity point of the movie extremely hard to pin down. If you've read the book you'll know the story of the true life Virgil Adamson is gut-wrenching and will draw a tear from even the most thick-skinned reader. The movie won't even cause a quivering lip, simply because its so hard to feel sympathy for Kilmer, particularly when the far more loveable character of Benic is shown as the insensitive and berated bad guy.
Overall the film tries hard but, and I know I'm contradicting myself here, Kilmer just isn't right for the part, Sorvino is simply wasted to bits and the whole thing could have been so much more but for the awful directing skills of Irwin Winkler. I'd far sooner recommend, Awakenings, a far superior version of an almost identical story.
At First Sight opens in the UK 30th April 1999
More reviews at Saturn UK. http://www.saturnuk.com (updates every Thursday) Posted by Wil Tirion (movie cor.)
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