Film Review - All I See Is You

Blake Lively (The Shallows, The Age of Adaline, Gossip Girl) and Jason Clarke (Everest, Zero Dark Thirty) shine in a disturbing and obsessive love story that defies genre, when ALL I SEE IS YOU reaches digital platforms on 26th February and DVD from 5th March, 2018, courtesy of Signature Entertainment.

Gina (Lively) and husband James (Clarke) have an almost perfect marriage. After being blinded as a child in a nearly fatal car crash, Gina exclusively depends on James to feel and ‘see’ the world around her, and it appears only to solidify their extremely ionate relationship. She envisions the world in her own vivid imagination with help from James’ descriptions. While the two enjoy a colourful existence living in Bangkok, their relationship is upended when Gina receives a corneal transplant and regains her sight. With her restored vision, Gina experiences the world with a new sense of wonder and independence which James finds threatening. It is only when Gina suddenly begins to lose her sight again that she finally realises the disturbing reality of their marriage…

Directed and written by Hollywood heavyweight Marc Forster (World War Z, Quantum of Solace), ALL I SEE IS YOU is a dark psychological thriller unlike any other, with a vital and career-defining performance by Blake Lively. Also starring Danny Huston (American Horror Story, Wonder Woman) ALL I SEE IS YOU is unique, unmissable and totally compelling viewing.

Review – Contains Spoilers

I found All I see as you to be a rather slow drama, very intense with an ending that leaves you wondering. For me, the film to be a little too slow, and a little too mundane and Blake’s character to be very meek and run of the mill, a safe role for her to play.

Gina is blind, and as such we often see how she imagines the world, she has a very vivid erotic imagination when to comes to the ion between herself and her husband, who she loves very deeply.

When Gina has her corneal transplant, it becomes apparent very quickly that her real sex life, husband and even the home she lives in is nothing like how she imagined and whilst she is enjoying all the beautiful colours, shapes and sights, she is quite clearly battling with her new reality to her imagination.

With her eyesight comes freedom, she is able to go out on her own, to talk to people, get her hair done and change her wardrobe, which is not to her husband’s liking and his insecurity of their relationship sets in. There is a whole questionable scene when James treats Gina to visit her sister in Spain. This scene almost cements James’ thoughts that his wife is wanting more out of life than him.

Whilst I say the film was slow, there is a lot going on, and not least of all James’ behaviour which is rather controlling which is explainable when Gina is blind, but not so much when she can see. Gina needs drops to sustain her sight and we see James staring at these drops, and then Gina’s eyesight deteriorates and she ‘almost’ goes blind again. You are led to believe that James switched over the drops to make his wife dependant on him again!

There are a couple of other scenes that leave you thinking this man is controlling and manipulative and you are left questioning the beginning of the film and whether the love and ion between the couple we witnessed were even real!

The film ends with a few unanswered questions, a lot of assumptions and as mentioned above, was this love, and just how far did James go!!

With all that being said, I found it was also a film you need to watch again, to pick up all the subtle scenes and dialogue that can so easily be missed the first time around!