Proof

I had a free afternoon and this movie was saved to Tivo. It's an Australian movie from the early 1980's starring Hugo Weaving (Mr. Smith from The Matrix) and an adorably young Russell Crowe (damn, do we ALL have to age?). It's not a good movie at all. It goes too fast and then plods along for another section. Endless and supposedly meaningful close-ups; overpowering soundtrack, and some scenes that had no logical purpose. So I'm not promoting it as a great movie. But it did seem to connect a great deal with the book I've been reading (Astrid & Veronika, below) and they seemed to carry a shared thread of trust and regrets.

The story is of a blind Australian man in his early 30's who is living a quiet life, dealing with nothing more than the hostility of his catty housekeeper. She had fallen in love with him, but he had no interest in her, so her love turned to vicious attacks and aggression made to humiliate him (picture her as a younger, hipper Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca). He meets up with Andy (Crowe's character) and begins a friendship and actually begins to have a life outside of the boundaries of his blindness. Of course, things go wrong, and the catty housekeeper can't stand to see her lost love spending time with a friend.

No huge surprises, but I really liked how it explored the concept of Trust. His blindness made him rely on people all the time. But instead of learning to trust in them, he actually trusted them less. He had a bitter streak that some disabled people get, rallying against the bonds constricting them. He had his own aggression and feelings that people were manipulating him, and it isn't until he learns that trust is not an absolute. He has to learn to accept that even the most good hearted of people may omit or evade the truth upon occasion, and that the painful truth is what has kept him isolated for so long. In order to branch out into a real life, he has to accept the shades of grey that color Trust from black to white.