‘The Ticket’ ...not exactly a must-see (pun intended)
At the start of "The Ticket," the audience sees only what the movie's protagonist does – which isn't much. James (Dan Stevens) has been blind since childhood, the result of an inoperable tumor that is pressing on his pituitary gland. His field of vision is nothing but a blurry darkness, punctuated by a few bright spots.
The audience doesn't need to see to appreciate the sweet relationship James has with his wife, Sam (Malin Akerman). The movie opens with the two chatting and laughing before bed. He wants her to do what he calls the "silly dance," and she resists for a bit before finally relenting.
Hours later, when James wakes up, his vision has mysteriously returned. He sees gauzy curtains in his bedroom and bright green leaves on a tree, just outside the window. James sprints to his sleeping son, Jonah (Skylar Gaertner), cradling the face he's never seen. He then walks into the bathroom and stares in the mirror.
It's a miracle, he tells his wife. And it is – but it's also a nightmare.
The more James can see, the more superficial he becomes. Once a man with a hangdog demeanor, he starts buying dapper suits and jogging, before ascending the corporate ladder in the shady real estate firm where he has worked as a lowly cold-caller for years. He buys a nice car and starts eating out at fancy restaurants. He even plans an upgrade in the wife department.
There isn't much more to the story, which director Ido Fluk wrote with Sharon Mashihi. "The Ticket" is a modern-day parable about a kindly blind man who, when he gains sight, becomes generically awful. (The title refers to a different parable about winning the lottery.) At its worst, the movie is a blunt critique of materialism, but there are some smart moments along the way in this methodically paced drama, which puts more emphasis on atmospherics than storytelling. Sounds, for example, are heightened to mirror the way James encounters the world. Every breath and sip and whoosh of fabric as someone walks around is amplified. (A stranger choice is the muted palette, which seems wrong for a film about a man regaining his sight.)
The score, meanwhile, is spare and foreboding, telegraphing the grief to come. Even in the midst of James's shocked realization that his sight has returned, this is not a movie about joy.
"Downton Abbey" alum Stevens is currently reigning at the box office in "Beauty and the Beast" and is earning high marks in the FX series "Legion." This art-house movie won't get nearly the same kind of attention, though his performance is just as stellar. It isn't easy to make the abrupt personality shifts of his character believable. Akerman, however, is the real standout as James' dowdy wife.
"I need to do something with my hair, now that you can see me," she says, sounding concerned, the morning of the big revelation. She seems to intuit that James's recovery may not be entirely good news. When James tells her that his vision means they'll have a better life, she replies, "We already do." She's right, of course. She can see what James can't, and it has nothing to do with her sense of sight.