SEE FOR ME (R)
Released by IFC Midnight
Review by Dan Bringhurst
SEE FOR ME is a fun enough little film from director Randall Okita, small in its scope, but occasionally bigger in its ambitions. Filmed and staged in a secluded mansion in New York. Sophie, played by Skyler Davenport — who is actually visually challenged in reality — spends her time cat-sitting and making up for the inadequate paychecks by stealing from tenants along the way. This story arc in itself is unbelievable to begin with. Never mind that she’s blind, or that she’s biting and rude, or that anyone would hire her after she’s stolen from every owner and continues to find jobs despite it…Or that she babysits cats.
Regardless, to get around various issues, she uses an app called “See For Me” where strangers-for-hire assist her while she holds her phone out, taking their directions as she meanders around the property.
But on this night, in this secluded abode, she’s awoken to the sounds of thieves–already in the home– drilling through a safe. With the help of the app and the stranger on the other end of the phone, she strives to blindly evade and even defend herself. And all of this suspense is undone when she’s quickly caught (as blind women stumbling around often are) and offers to help in their escape in exchange for a cut of what’s in the safe.
I was enjoying myself for the first hour of SEE FOR ME. It’s edited, directed and performed in a way that works well for the atmosphere, but as it progresses, you begin to feel less in touch with the character and the ending leaves a lot to be desired, topping off a movie about bad people doing bad things with a finale that simply misses the mark.
This feeling of dissatisfaction is all the more enhanced by a final scene that is completely disconnected and judicially bankrupted by the earlier conduct of our main character, her actions, everyone’s lack of humanity, and the absence of even a whisper of comeuppance.
It starts well, and at times it’s even good, but it leans into the blind narrative, wielding the audience’s interest as if it were a crutch, bargaining everything on this as it throws away every notion of a deeper and more enjoyable character arc.
In the end, you’ll want to simply turn on PANIC ROOM or DON’T BREATHE, as they’re far superior in exploring character, fear, violence, retribution, and the general sense of impending doom that other invasion films have done so well.
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