Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

At First Sight Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 11, 2017

Irwin Winkler's "A First Sight" (1999) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of independent distributors Olive Films. There are no supplemental features on the disc. In English, without optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The architect

The great thing about At First Sight is that it was inspired by a remarkable true story. The bad thing about the film is that the people that made it wanted to tell a slightly different story. Unfortunately, these types of experiments rarely work as well as intended.

The original story came from neurological genius Oliver Sacks who wrote some incredible books describing absolutely fascinating cases. (Penny Marshall’s Oscar nominated film Awakenings, for instance, is based on one of Sacks’ books). It was the story of Shirl Jennings who regained his vision after Dr. Trevor Woodhams performed a groundbreaking surgery in Atlanta, Georgia. Because of a serious medical condition Shirl had spent more than forty years living in complete darkness and had trained his body to trust a wide range of instincts that people with normal vision do not use, so after the surgery he had to endure an adjustment period that was extremely stressful to his system. Shirl’s loving wife, Barbara, was always next to him and tried to help as much as she could.

In the film the basic elements of the original story are preserved, but director Irwin Winkler and writer Steve Levitt carefully alter the dynamics of the events that it is supposedly recreating and with that basically offer an 'improved' version of it. Also, there are all sorts of different embellishments that produce plenty of melodrama for what ultimately becomes a bloated romantic tearjerker. It is not exactly a terrible film, but the more time one spends with its characters, the more they begin to look like a couple from an overpolished unusually long commercial. In other words, it is pretty difficult to genuinely care about them.

Here’s a short summation of the new story: The beautiful, overworked and single again architect Amy Benic (Mira Sorvino) is convinced by a friend to spend a few days in a fancy sanatorium somewhere in upstate New York where she can get an emotional detox. She agrees but instead gets a mind-blowing massage from Virgil Adamson (Val Kilmer), a blind masseur who can make women melt in his arms. Not realizing that Virgil is blind, Amy later on meets him at the bus stop and the two begin spending time together. Very quickly the two fall madly in love and she invites him to come with her to the city to meet a specialist (Bruce Davison) who could restore his vision with a new but risky procedure. For a while everything seems to work according to Amy’s plan, but then the relationship is tested by an unexpected setback.

There are only a few short segments that look authentic and they all focus on Virgil’s struggle to take control of his body after he regains his vision. He is suddenly forced into an entirely new world that is quite simply overwhelming his senses and is pushing him on the verge of a serious nervous breakdown. The rest just does not work at all.

Kelly McGillis plays Virgil’s overly protective sister, Jennie. Acclaimed Canadian jazz player and singer Diana Krall also has a small cameo.

At First Sight Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Irwin Winkler's A First Sight arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films.

My guess is that the master that was used to produce the Blu-ray release was created quite some time ago during the DVD era. It has a number of obvious limitations. For example, virtually the entire film looks uncharacteristically flat; there is also notable softness, with the darker/indoor footage really struggling to retain existing detail. The color scheme is also unconvincing. While some of the primaries remain stable, it is very easy to tell that saturation should be better and nuances expanded. The good news is that there are no traces of recent sharpening adjustments. Image stability is also very good. Regardless, the film could and should look better in high-definition. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

At First Sight Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Optional English SDH subtitles are not provided for the main feature.

The lossless track is very good. While the film does not offer any major opportunities for it to impress, depth, clarity, and separation are likely very close to being optimal. There are no balance issues to report either. The dialog is clean, stable, and easy to follow.

At First Sight Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Most unfortunately, there are no supplemental features to be found on this Blu-ray release.

At First Sight Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The only way to describe At First Sight is to say that it is a missed opportunity. It is way too obvious that it tries to push all the right buttons at the right time and as a result completely destroys the credibility of its story. Olive Films' Blu-ray release is sourced from an older master with a fair share of limitations. RENT IT.