The film gets off to a good start, just by being set in Rome, where an apparent serial killer might be kicking into gear, killing sex workers in the night. We witness one such killing early on- a brutal strangulation that pours a river of blood onto the sidewalk.
The next day Diana (Ilenia Pastorelli) driving past a neighborhood park, notices lots of people pointing to the sky. A solar eclipse is in progress. Foreshadowing or clumsy metaphor? Either way, sh*t’s about to get real.
Diana is am escort and after rebuffing a client on account of he needs a shower, she later finds herself being pursued by, surely, that same killer we saw last night. Fleeing in her car, a terrible crash happens and Diana ends up in the hospital, where she learns she has lost her sight.
Now That’s a Pretty Great Start, Right?
But here Argento makes a mistake in the narrative – Diana also learns that the parents of a young boy were killed and through simple contrivance, she is now paired up with the boy, Chin (Andrea Zhang), who survived the car accident.
From a screenwriting standpoint, the kid is meant to serve as the “eyes” of a blind character, but only serves to slow things down ( or is that just the father of four in me talking?) and her lessons on how to adapt to blind living with her aide played by Asia Argento (look her up!) feels perfunctory.
We’ve seen this movie many times before, only done a lot better. This feels like a slog leading to a letdown of a conclusion.
Italian Director Dario Argento has his fans, but I can’t imagine many of them digging this latest by the 81 year old.
Dark Glasses | 1 out of 4 Stars | Expands limited release additional North American cinemas beginning Friday, October 14th. The film will also have its exclusive streaming debut on Shudder, Thursday, October 13th
