Sommerleigh Pollonais, Senior Writer
Plot: When blind former skier Sophie cat-sits in a secluded mansion, three thieves invade to raid a hidden safe. Sophie’s only defense is the use of an app that allows army veteran Kelly to “see” for her as she tries to guide her remotely to safety.
Review: The title isn’t subtle and neither is the film itself, but I saw See For Me pop up in my streaming options and decided why not? Well while the movie itself is well produced and maybe not be a terrible way to pass the time, there’s nothing here that puts this film above the handful of others that have done it better.
Off the top of my head you have classics like my personal favourite, Wait Until Dark or Night and the City and then there’s the more modern Hush, Julia’s Eyes and Don’t Breathe, the last one putting a fresh twist on things by making the antagonist the differently-abled person. So for this film to make any kind of impact it had to do something different and to its credit, it does.
Skyler Davenport plays Sophie, a young blind woman who used to be an avid skier. Davenport’s performance is one of the better aspects of the film. I give the writers credit for not making her act weak or afraid just because she has a disability, too many films treat characters such as these as damsels in distress.
That said, they MAY have gone a bit too far right as Sophie can be very unlikeable at times. She takes a job cat-sitting for a wealthy woman named Debra, played by a there-and-gone Laura Vandervoort (Smallville, Bitten, Jigsaw). She doesn’t know this person nor was this person cruel or rude to her or anything and yet Sophie decides to steal from her just because she can, and because no one would suspect the blind girl. I get what they were going for (just because someone is disabled doesn’t automatically make them a saint) but this is our protagonist, the person we should be rooting for. And I’m not going to lie, there were times I was rooting for Sophie to get got!
Let’s move on to the movie’s gimmick and the reason I think people may be swindled into thinking this story is better than it actually is, and that’s the app “See For Me” that Sophie utilises when she’s in trouble. On the plus side I’m sure something like this probably DOES exist and to see it used to protect someone from home invaders is pretty neat. Jessica Parker Kennedy (most recently seen playing Nora West on Flash) is the voice and more importantly the eyes on the other end of this app. She plays Kelly who we first see Sophie call when she accidentally locks herself out of the house and then later on to help evade the thieves. Kennedy is also fine in the role but her backstory is designed to make what comes next believable (she’s a gamer and army veteran) and here’s the thing, it doesn’t!
I don’t care how many video games you play or that you’re an ex-soldier, controlling a person with a gun is not going to be the same as controlling a video game. It’s ridiculous and maybe if they had utilised the gimmick once I would’ve given it a pass, but I just couldn’t helping laughing out loud at the audacity of these scenes in this movie. Go see it for yourself and tell me if you think Sophie was making it out of that situation alive based on this premise alone. It would be like believing Kevin McCallister would’ve survived in real life. Sorry to burst your bubble folks in real life that would’ve been that kid’s last Christmas!
See For Me, while throwing in a neat twist on the blind/disabled thriller genre, doesn’t offer more than paper thin characters, a not-so-likeable protagonist and a very unbelievable third act. It’s not an awful movie but it doesn’t come close to offering the thrills a story such as this one usually does.
Sommer’s Score: 5.5 out of 10
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Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes.
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