Ilenia Pastorelli stars as Diana, an Italian escort who ends up losing her sight when she is attacked by a serial killer. She then meets Rita (Asia Argento), someone aiming to help her adjust to her life without sight, and enlists the help of a small child, Chin (Andrea Zhang), to be her eyes for her. The killer wants to finish what they started though, and it seems inevitable that Diana will lose more than her sight.
When this movie was first announced, horror fans were excited. Dario Argento, a once-great master of cinema, was seemingly returning to the giallo style of movie that had so often given us his best work. Hopes were high that this could banish the memory of the last film he directed a decade ago, the abysmal Dracula 3D. I even started to hear positive reviews from people who saw this at festival screenings.
Those people lied!
Okay, admittedly, some will just like this more than others, and it is much better than his Dracula movie. But that is like saying cholera is better than the plague. The world would be better off without either. And maybe it is time for Argento to hang up his hat. We all have to accept that he’s probably not going to deliver another classic that would make a perfect end to his directorial career (although his involvement in the powerful and heart-breaking Vortex show that he could maybe collaborate with others in a way that would be beneficial to everyone).
Dark Glasses feels like on of those scripts you sometimes see created by AI. Everything is present and correct, in terms of the tropes that Argento has worked with throughout his career, but nothing feels quite right. Events unfold, but don’t always feel naturally connected to one another. There are occasional bursts of violence, but they feel unimpressive and lacking in any energy. It is, overall, impossible to care about anything, or anyone, in the film.
Pastorelli and Zhang have some good moments together, Asia Argento gives a performance that actually works well (a pleasant surprise), and there is supporting work from Andrea Gherpelli and Mario Pirrello, as well as one or two others, that adds to the potential for a lot of fun. Sadly, that potential is never realised.
It all boils down to the fact that Argento seems to have lost his way, forgotten how he made moments of cinema that were so impactful, that made such an indelible impression on so many viewers. There is no point in criticising the script, co-written by Argento and Franco Ferrini, because these movies aren’t usually focused on the writing. The technical side of things (including the score by Arnaud Rebotini) is all competent. But competent is not what you expect, or want, from Dario Argento.
I didn’t expect this to be on the same level as his best work, that would be a tall order indeed, but I was hoping to see one or two scenes that contained flashes of brilliance, breadcrumbs rewarding those who keep hoping that an immense talent hasn’t entirely disappeared. There was nothing here. You could even say that something so lacklustre MIGHT make you admire the craziness of his Dracula movie a bit more. I won’t ever say that, but you could.
3/10
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