Imagine you’re blind, then one morning you wake up having inexplicably regained your eyesight. How would that change you? Affect your loved ones? Alter the course of your life?
As conceived by writer/director Ido Fluk in his stylish, slow-burning psychological drama The Ticket, that scenario would spell your doom. Admirably cynical until it loses its way in the final stretch, The Ticket nevertheless maintains a provocative allure, bolstered by a fiercely committed performance from Dan Stevens.
Fluk opens The Ticket in darkness, with a blind man (Stevens) heard canoodling with his wife, (Malin Akerman), and then praying alone, thanking God for his blessed life. The next morning the man wakes, only to discover that his sight has been miraculously restored.
The man, we learn, is James – and boy is he glad to learn he looks just like the former star of Downton Abbey. Admiring his appearance in front of his bathroom mirror for the first time, James can’t seem to believe his luck.
“I need to do something with my hair, now that you can see me,” says his wife, Sam, visibly insecure.
Immediately, James begins to make lofty promises to Sam, vowing that he’ll work towards getting a promotion at the real estate firm where he works the phones, now that he can see. To Sam’s surprise, in no time James makes good on his word.
With sudden power, his ego begins to inflate to epic proportions. Like a teenager who’s just been given his first taste of freedom, James rebels by blowing his earnings on a new car after getting a big pay raise, failing to consult with Sam beforehand. He also takes a dangerous fancy to a sexy female co-worker.
In no time, James morphs from a loving husband and father into sleazy snake, not far removed from the mysterious drifter Stevens played to steely perfection in his 2014 thriller The Guest.
However, just as James’s destructive new lease on life is going full throttle, the film-makers slam on the brakes. For no discernible reason, other than suddenly missing his loving family, James starts to see the error of his ways. As a result, his ensuing about-face feels totally unearned.
Up until this point, James has done a stellar job at proving himself to be a heartless, self-interested asshole. It’s impossible to get on his side after he’s irreparably damaged the lives of all those around him. When he howls to God, pleading for forgiveness after acting like such a cad, it’s simply a case of too little, too late.
And maybe that’s the point The Ticket is trying to make: that when gifted with newfound abilities, humanity is doomed to fail. If so, it’s a bit of an obvious one.
