Avert Your E From ‘At First Sight’
You can’t imagine a more nauseating couple than Val Kilmer and Mira Sorvino in “At First Sight.”
He’s a happy-go-lucky blind masseuse, and she’s a stressed-out architect in need of a good rubdown in this sappy romance based on an Oliver Sacks story.
There is not one genuine moment in this glorified soap opera, which manages to insult blind people, female professionals, and the intelligence of anyone who wanders in, unwarned, to watch it. The director is Irwin Winkler, an accomplished producer whose previous directing credits include “The Net.”
Amy (Sorvino) meets Virgil (Kilmer) when she takes a vacation to a remote spa to shake off the stress of her successful, overpriviledged life. He’s her masseuse, and after their first session she melts into tears. She doesn’t even realize he’s blind, although his odd demeanor should have alerted her.
Kilmer’s face is cemented into a perpetually goofy grin that makes everything he does or says seem inconsequential. His confidante is his seeing-eye dog, to whom he rhapsodizes about his new client - how she smells of cinnamon and vanilla. What is she, a coffeecake?
Virgil’s development is further stunted by an overprotective sister (Kelly McGillis) who lives next door and still brings him meals. All this talk about the cinnamon girl is making her feel threatened, having thrown her entire life away for her younger bro.
Sorvino’s character is equally immature, a New York professional who talks babytalk and checks out sightlessness by donning a velvet scarf in her hotel room. But these antics are nothing compared to the havoc she wreaks on her new lover.
They have sex maybe once before she returns to Manhattan, determined to restore his sight. The man seems happy and well-adjusted; why would she insist upon turning his life upside down? Doesn’t love mean accepting someone as they are? The more she pushes, the more she shatters his inner calm.
The point of “At First Sight,” if there is one, is that a blind person may very well be at peace with his condition, having honed other senses to compensate for the one that’s missing. For someone like this, regaining sight can be a jarring, frightening experience.
Bruce Davison portrays the most ill-informed eye specialist to hold a license (doesn’t he anticipate any adverse reactions to surgery?), with Nathan Lane as a therapist/clown in the Patch Adams mode. Need I say more?
“At First Sight” Location: Newport, Spokane Valley Mall, Coeur d’Alene Cinemas Credits: Directed by Oliver Sacks, starring Val Kilmer, Mira Sorvino, Kelly McGillis Running time: 2:04 Rating: PG-13