- Hysterical Blindness
Infobox Film
name = Hysterical Blindness
caption = DVD cover
director =Mira Nair
producer =Jason Blum
Amy Israel
Uma Thurman
writer =Laura Cahill
narrator =
starring =Uma Thurman
Gena Rowlands
Juliette Lewis
Ben Gazzara
Justin Chambers
Jolie Peters
music =Lesley Barber
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = HBO
released =January 16 ,2002 (Sundance Film Festival)
August 21 ,2002 (HBO)
runtime = 96 mins
country =United States
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website = http://www.hbo.com/films/hystericalblindness/index.html
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0290664"Hysterical Blindness" is a made-for-
HBO movie byMira Nair and starringGena Rowlands ,Uma Thurman ,Juliette Lewis andBen Gazzara . The movie premiered on HBO onAugust 21 ,2002 . The film was directed byMira Nair . In2003 ,Uma Thurman won aGolden Globe for her portrayal of Debbie Miller.Ben Gazzara andGena Rowlands also won Best Supporting Actor/Actress awards for their performances as Virginia Miller and Nick Piccolo at the2003 Emmy s.The opening titles by Trollback + Company won a Primetime Emmy award for Outstanding Main Title Design in 2003.
In the film Thurman plays an excitable
New Jersey woman in the 1980s searching for romance. TheSan Francisco Chronicle review wrote, “Thurman so commits herself to the role, eyes blazing and body akimbo, that you start to believe that such a creature could exist — an exquisite looking woman so spastic and needy that she repulses regular Joes. Thurman has bent the role to her will” [ [1] ]Plot
It's 1987 in
Bayonne, New Jersey and Debbie Miller has just been diagnosed with a condition calledhysterical blindness in which there are moments when her sight fades in and out. The doctor tells her to try to have fun with her friends. She and her best friend Beth go to their favorite pub, Ollie's, and try to find a man and have a drink. Beth flirts with the bartender and Debbie gets angry with her and decides to go outside. At this moment a man offers to walk her to her car.The next day they run into each other at the same bar and she asks him to go somewhere else and they end up at his place. Afterwards, she thinks she has found love, but the guy was only looking for a one night stand. Debbie goes home, where her mother has also started dating an older man named Nick who wants her to move with him to Florida. Nick passes away suddenly, and Virginia realizes that until she met Nick, she had been living her life waiting for things to happen to her. Debbie realizes that she was too needy and needed to be more careful in who she chose to date. In the end, Debbie, Beth and Virginia struggle to find stability in their New Jersey town and agree that all they need is each other.
Cast
*
Uma Thurman — Debbie Miller
*Gena Rowlands — Virginia Miller
*Juliette Lewis — Beth Tocyznski
*Ben Gazzara — Nick Piccolo
*Justin Chambers — Rick
*Jolie Peters — Amber Autumn ToczynskiReferences
# A repulsive beauty in ’80s Jersey Thurman’s histrionics fit “Hysterical Blindness” well. San Francisco Chronicle. 23 August 2002. Retrieved 13 February 2006.
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