The Ticket

James is a thirty-something blind man working at a real estate firm, trying to talk people into selling their homes under the guise that their property values are about to drop drastically. It’s the perfect job for a blind person because he sits at a desk all day and talks to strangers on the phone. When he was an adolescent, he lost his sight, the result of a pituitary tumor pressing against his optic nerve. Then suddenly he wakes up in his thirties, a married man with a son who is now an adolescent, and his sight has miraculously returned. A normal person would take stock of his life and be happy with what he had, but that’s not what James does. He goes out and buys new clothes, gets a snazzy haircut, a brand new sports car, and starts looking for a prettier woman than his wife. He finds her at work when he comes up with a particularly nasty scam in which to trick people into selling their homes. Only after he’s left his wife and son does he realize the fast track is not everything’s it’s cracked up to be. His wife starts falling in love with his old best friend, a blind man, and she won’t take him back. Then just as he realizes how miserable he is, he loses his sight once again and wanders off into the dark.

Aside from the ending, the film was pretty good. Dan Stevens and Oliver Platt were awesome. Even Malin Akerman was okay, although she looked terrible in this role (intentionally I would presume). All of the information for the backstory is there if you listen. He met his wife at a community center dance that he attended with other blind people and she danced with him because he looked so miserable. But once he got his sight back and saw that his wife was on the homely side, he immediately wanted something different, something better, something younger. After he left her, his wife didn’t have to spend so much time taking care of him and was able to spend time on herself. She became much prettier and was much happier. Then it became obvious that the only problem in James’ life was himself. He’s a perpetual downer. The end.

The title “The Ticket” is in reference to the joke that James tells repeatedly through the film, which encapsulates his own story. A man prays every day to God for a lottery ticket and after years and years of praying an angel goes to God and asks why he hasn’t let the man win the lottery yet. God replies, I’d love to let him win but he’s never bought a lottery ticket. 😉

What I loved:

1. He gets what he deserves.
2. It’s totally plausible with tumors.
3. The film didn’t dwell on the medical aspect, more on the romance.

What I didn’t like:

1. The way he just walks off into the darkness.  A metaphor but not very visual.
2. A little midlife crisis cliche.
3. Not much focus on the kid at all.

8 out of 10 stars.

Reviewed by Betsy.