I guess I'm a Mira Nair fan. I saw her Mississippi Masala (1992) and thought it was a great success. I believed her to be an ethnic director, dealing with Indian matters. I was wrong. The girls of Bayonne, NJ are authentic to their nails and accents. Uma Thurman gives it up, not the glamour girl we're used too, but a thirty something bar fly unable to land a man. It's not that she's unattractive, this is Uma we're talking about, but she is socially retarded because her daddy ran out on the family. Consequently, she hits all the wrong notes in interaction with the local Jersey Guys. The stress has caused symptoms, hysterical blindness, as her tone-deaf social antics at the local nightspot resemble the antics of immature high school girls. Her friend, beautifully played by Juliette Lewis is just a little bit smarter, but not much. They dream about being really hot when they were sixteen. Lewis' grade school daughter, April Autumn is crying out for a responsible mother. Meanwhile, Ben Gazarra, still suave after all these years, is romancing Uma's mom, Gina Rowlands. This is a slice of life movie. The pill freed women back in the 50's, but one wonders if it did them any good.

Being single is always frustrating, but letting that unhappy feeling get the better of you would only make things worse. That's what's all about in this movie. The 80's is always something and this movie sets back in that decade. And I'll say, this movie was excellent. Uma Thurman, Juliet Lewis, and Gena Rowlands were astounding. Uma Thurman, is a heavy hitting actress from "Pulp Fiction" to The "Kill Bill" movies really played her part well as Debby. She goes to the doctor when she temporarily goes blind. It can be scary. At least she's trying to take it easy. Her friend Beth, a wild child had a daughter whose father didn't keep his end on the relationship. Debby's mother Virginia(Rowlands) is strong, yet her daughter's resentment to her new boyfriend lead to her own remorse when the boyfriend died of a heart attack. The resentment was caused when her father left the family. The movie has everything, laughs, cries, wonder, curiosity, and a sense of direction on showing on how important life should be. And it's not too late to catch the big one! A very good movie, and a major keeper in the video library.

Mira Nair, the talented director of this film keeps surprising us. She gets excellent acting from the different casts in all her movies. "Hysterical Blindness" is no exception. Ms. Nair working on the screen play by Laura Cahill, and based on Ms. Cahill's own stage play, takes us to a town in New Jersey, so close to Manhattan in geography, but far away in the way these people seem to be living in another planet.Debby Miller blames her mother for whatever is wrong with her life. Her father left her when she was quite young. Her mother, Virginia, makes ends meet by working as a waitress in a local diner. Both daughter and mother have been cheated out of happiness because of the loss they have experienced. While Debby dwells on her unhappiness, Virginia seems to have adjusted quite well.Debby is a woman that is desperate to find a man. Obviously, she is quite capable to give her best into any relationship. It's sad how she goes after the one man she should have avoided in the worst way. It will be too late before she realizes the mistake she has made.Throughout the film, Debby and Beth, share their hopes and aspirations. While Beth is grounded, Debby is flighty, hoping for things she can't have. On the other hand, Virginia meets a nice man, Nick, at the diner. They begin a friendship that unfortunately is cut short by tragedy. All in all, the film final scenes tells us that Debby realizing her mistakes goes back to her roots and to her friendship with Beth.The strength in the movie is the great performances Ms. Nair gets out of the four principals. Uma Thurman is good as the Debby. Gena Rowlands, as the mother, makes an appealing Virginia, who makes us care about her. Juliette Lewis, as Beth, is also endearing. Ben Gazzara makes a short, but effective contribution as Nick, the man who finds love with Virginia.This is a film that shows Ms. Nair's talents perfectly.

This movie can't quite decide what it wants to be: 1. A serious coming of age sort of profile of two direction-less young women who are trapped in working class neighborhood without any future ahead of them, looking for love in all the wrong places, who ultimately find some sort of enlightenment about love and themselves. OR 2. A lighthearted look at two girls in the 80s who just wanta have fun and/or Mr. Right but trip and fall a few times on their way towards that goal. Another problem is that the movie fails to significantly define its setting either in place or time. We figure out NJ from the accents and 80s from the clothes and snippets of music but these elements could have been played up more. You spend time trying to figure out what sort of direction the movie is taking and never get quite satisfied as it fails to produce in either direction. You do feel for the characters but the Uma Thurman is so over the top that you are repulsed by her character which is so heavy handed that it seems out of place with the rather sweet lightness of other characterizations in the movie - her mother, her friend, her friend's daughter etc.