“BASED ON THE INSPIRING TRUE STORY!” What, um, story would that be, exactly? No, I’m serious. Sight is a biopic about Dr. Ming Wang, a gifted Chinese student who eventually became a “top in his field” eye doctor in the United States. That’s a great resume. I won’t lie. I wish that were me.
But where does the “inspiration” part come in? There are a lot of “top in their field” people in the world. Few of their stories make decent biopics. And the lead subject of this one [spoiler!] never gets her vision improved. I am sorry to spoil that, but -honestly- I wish I’d known it going into this film. Because I wouldn’t be freaking disappointed right now.
Ming Wang (Jayden Zhang pre-puberty, Ben Wang post-puberty, Terry Chen adult) spent his formative years in Mao’s China, specifically enduring the Cultural Revolution. I suppose we should find remarkable the fact that he had a sibling. Unfortunately, that was THE MOST REMARKABLE facet of this particular biography. I’m sorta kidding … but I’m sorta not. Dr. Wang is the inventor of the amniotic membrane contact lens, which sounds equally as gross as it is boring.
This is his major contribution to life. Woo. So, hey, give it up for Dr. NoRomance (which is also a theme here). But his development of this breakthrough tech in the field failed to work on the one
subject it was intended for, an Indian girl named Kajal (Mia SwamiNathan). Kajal was deliberately blinded by her (evil) stepmother (is this a Disney film) in the Indian tradition of being a more effective beggar. This would have been a shocking revelation had we not already learned it in Slumdog Millionaire.
None of this detracts from the fact that Ming is a fairly dull man leading a fairly dull life. I dunno. Maybe were I a scientist I could get behind twenty establishing microscope shots. But if you’re asking me “1 or 2,” right now I’m picking 2 without hesitation.
Sight is a member of the “so what” family of films, best described by “Why did I pay money for this when Hallmark can show something just like it every two hours?” And the answer is, quite honestly, “I don’t know.” There’s next-to-nothing in Sight that separates it from TV. There isn’t a great story or a great performance here. There isn’t an actor to die for. And the most emotional moment of the film came in sermon form, which I will never pay money for on purpose.
There was once an ophthalmologist named Ming
A pioneer in optic researching
He was troubled was scarring
His solution, somewhat jarring
And now we wear placenta eye bling
Rated PG-13, 103 Minutes
Director: Andrew Hyatt
Writer: Andrew Hyatt, John Duigan, Buzz McLaughlin
Genre: “Who cares?” history
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Ophthalmologists?
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who go to the movies for an escape
