"Love Is Blind" is being described as a romantic comedy. That's odd, because there is not a single moment of comedy in the film and only a trace of romance. That's just the beginning of how the film comes up short at every step.
Bess Krafft (Shannon Tarbet) appears to be living a peaceful existence, going to school to become an optometrist and being the sole caretaker for her father, Murray (Matthew Broderick), who is dealing with Alzheimer's. Bess is seeing a therapist, Farmer Smithson (Benjamin Walker), to help her with the death of her mother 10 years ago.
The twist is that Bess is just pocketing the money she's getting to go to school and her mother, Carolyn (Chloe Sevigny), is alive and well. Bess has selective perception, so she can't see or hear her mother, and the person trying to help her has more problems than Bess. All this gets even more complicated when Russell (Aidan Turner), a local demolition expert, falls for Bess, but she can't see him either.
Problems are plentiful with "Love Is Blind," but the chief culprit is the script by Jennifer Schuur. Despite the rom-com label that's been slapped on the production, the film shows no signs of an offbeat tale of life and love. There are moments when the film seems buried deep in reality, and then there's a pause for some whimsical dance number or fantasy moment.
There's a desperate effort to stitch together the patchwork elements through a narration by Turner where at one point he floats the idea of this being a fairy tale. That would have been a positive way to go, but instead the script keeps its uneven and uninteresting direction.
Schuur has written scripts for numerous television dramas, including "Crash," "Hannibal," "Big Love" and "Hellcats," where she has shown ability with elements like romance and comedy with a sure hand. The writer goes completely off the rails with "Love Is Blind," even resorting to using the obvious metaphor of a pure white peacock.
Schuur's not the only one to blame. Novice feature film directors Monty Whitebloom and Andy Delaney commit the ultimate filmmaking sin by casting incredibly talented actors and then not using their talents. The massively talented Broderick has so little to do, he could have been replaced by a mannequin and there would be little change. The equally talented Sevigny is reduced to doing little more than brooding, another side effect of her character not being able to interact with the one person where there could be great tension.
