Hysterical Blindness

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Hysterical Blindness
DVD cover
Directed by	Mira Nair
Produced by	Jason Blum Amy Israel Uma Thurman
Written by	Laura Cahill
Starring	Uma Thurman Gena Rowlands Juliette Lewis Ben Gazzara Justin Chambers Jolie Peters
Music by	Lesley Barber
Distributed by	HBO
Release date(s)	January 16, 2002 (Sundance Film Festival) August 21, 2002 (HBO)
Running time	96 mins
Country	United States
Language	English
Official website
IMDb profile

Hysterical Blindness is a made-for-HBO movie by Mira Nair and starring Gena Rowlands, Uma Thurman, Juliette Lewis and Ben Gazzara. The movie premiered on HBO on August 21, 2002. The film was directed by Mira Nair. In 2003, Uma Thurman won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Debbie Miller. Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands also won Best Supporting Actor/Actress awards for their performances as Virginia Miller and Nick Piccolo at the 2003 Emmys.

The opening titles by Trollback + Company won a Primetime Emmy award for Outstanding Main Title Design in 2003.

In the film Thurman plays an excitable New Jersey woman in the 1980s searching for romance. The San Francisco Chronicle review wrote, “Thurman so commits herself to the role, eyes blazing and body akimbo, that you start to believe that such a creature could exist — an exquisite looking woman so spastic and needy that she repulses regular Joes. Thurman has bent the role to her will” ^[1]

[edit] Plot

It's 1987 in Bayonne, New Jersey and Debbie Miller has just been diagnosed with a condition called hysterical blindness in which there are moments when her sight fades in and out. The doctor tells her to try to have fun with her friends. She and her best friend Beth go to their favorite pub, Ollie's, and try to find a man and have a drink. Beth flirts with the bartender and Debbie gets angry with her and decides to go outside. At this moment a man offers to walk her to her car.

The next day they run into each other at the same bar and she asks him to go somewhere else and they end up at his place. Afterwards, she thinks she has found love, but the guy was only looking for a one night stand. Debbie goes home, where her mother has also started dating an older man named Nick who wants her to move with him to Florida. Nick passes away suddenly, and Virginia realizes that until she met Nick, she had been living her life waiting for things to happen to her. Debbie realizes that she was too needy and needed to be more careful in who she chose to date. In the end, Debbie, Beth and Virginia struggle to find stability in their New Jersey town and agree that all they need is each other.

[edit] Cast

Uma Thurman— Debbie Miller
Gena Rowlands — Virginia Miller
Juliette Lewis — Beth Tocyznski
Ben Gazzara — Nick Piccolo
Justin Chambers — Rick
Jolie Peters — Amber Autumn Toczynski

[edit] References

^ [1]

A repulsive beauty in ’80s Jersey Thurman’s histrionics fit “Hysterical Blindness” well. San Francisco Chronicle. 23 August 2002. Retrieved 13 February 2006.

v • d • e Mira Nair

Directed films	Salaam Bombay! (1988) • Mississippi Masala (1991) • The Perez Family (1995) • Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996) • My Own Country (1998) • Monsoon Wedding (2001) • Hysterical Blindness (2002) • 11'9'01 September 11 (Section 'India') (2002) • Vanity Fair (2004) • The Namesake (2007) • Shantaram • Amelia (2009)

Documentaries	Jama Masjid Street Journal (1979) • So Far from India (1982) • India Cabaret (1985) • Children of a Desired Sex (1987) • The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat (1993) • My Own Country (1998) • The Laughing Club of India (1999)

Productions	Still, the Children Are Here (2004) • Blood Brothers (2007) • Gangsta M.D.