The gift of sight is a valuable one. While the average person couldn’t imagine life without it, many individuals live their lives in darkness, unable to experience the world in the same way those with vision do. While they learn ways to deal with this impairment, some tasks prove harder than others. Call it a hunch, but escaping criminals during a burglary in an unfamiliar house would likely be high on that list. In Randall Okita’s See for Me, the audience witnesses exactly that, and it’s a tense thriller that leaves the viewer grateful to have a working pair of eyes.
Sophie (Skyler Davenport) is a young blind woman who is a former skier. Despite living with her mother, she likes to be fiercely independent and has a penchant for getting into trouble. One day, Sophie lands a cat-sitting gig for wealthy Debra (Laura Vandervoort), who is going out of town for a while. Sophie does her best to acclimate herself in the huge house, but during the first night she’s there, three thugs break into the house and attempt to steal the contents of Debra’s safe. Alarmed, Sophie turns to an app called See for Me, which connects her to a vet named Kelly (Jessica Parker Kennedy) who is able to “see for her” via video chat to fight back and help guide Sophie to safety. Unfortunately for everyone involved, nothing goes according to plan, and what ensues is a taut cat-and-mouse game filled with surprises.
Davenport, who is also legally blind, does a compelling job at portraying a character who subverts all expectations. Sophie never falls into the hackneyed “heroine in distress” stereotype during her conflict and lives in a morally gray area that is uncommon for a main protagonist. In fact, she’s completely deplorable at times, but it’s a refreshing divergence for this style of film. Kennedy’s performance as a tough yet compassionate virtual companion balances Davenport’s out nicely, and these two leads have solid chemistry together, sharing some of the most interesting moments of the film’s screen time together despite never actually meeting in person.
While some might criticize the cinematography for being excessively dark during the nighttime home invasion, it works well to put the audience in Sophie’s position, as she relies solely on sounds in the house and the voice of her guide to get her through this ordeal. These scenes are mostly illuminated by the light of Sophie’s phone and a flashlight, and it’s a highly effective way to keep the audience engaged. Randall Okita does an excellent job of keeping tensions high the entire way through, and the often tight, shadowy shots in the film only enhance this vibe. The editing is also well-executed, especially during sequences of the film where Sophie is hiding from the thugs and they suspect she is near. A few details of the film rely heavily on suspension of disbelief, but they’re never so implausible that it’s a dealbreaker.
Much like Terence Young’s classic thriller Wait Until Dark, See for Me teaches the audience to never underestimate the blind, but with a modern twist. While most have seen this premise played out in countless iterations before, not many of those films are handled with as much talent at the helm as this one.
--Andrea Riley
