Review: See For Me

Image courtesy of IFC Midnight.

"See for Me" is a brisk thriller in the vein of "Wait Until Dark" or "Hush" (the 2016 one) that is stylistically engaging, even if its characters, other than its leading lady, and their motivations are a little thin. This is a film that is lean with no fat, but it's a rare case of a film that could have benefitted from a slightly longer running time to flesh out its story.

In the picture, Sophie (Skyler Davenport) is a former champion skier in her age division, but who is completely blind. Strangely, the film doesn't seem that interested in letting us know whether she has always been blind and has skied - it is noted that blind skiers have people to assist them through technology to notify them about what they are facing in the landscape while traveling downhill on skis - or has somehow lost her sight.

Regardless, Sophie's primary means of making a living now involves house - or pet - sitting for the rich, and her over-worried mother wonders how much she's getting paid since she appears to be somewhat flush with money. We later learn that Sophie has a penchant for stealing items from rich people's homes because she assumes that no one would dare blame the blind girl.

At the film's beginning, she's ready to take on a gig with a rich woman named Debra (Laura Vandervoort), who wants Sophie to stay with her cat in a large, isolated mansion with winding staircases and numerous rooms. Sophie rebuffs an offer of a grand tour, and this leads us to believe she's a tough character, wanting to familiarize herself with the home on her own terms. However, we learn that she's merely stubborn to ask for help. As soon as Debra leaves, she calls a friend on her phone, puts it on camera mode and he helps her navigate the house.

Later after an argument with that friend, Sophie locks herself out, and ends up utilizing a service her mother told her about called See for Me, in which a blind person can call and get visual assistance from a person working remotely who acts as eyes for them with the help of their camera phone. The person who helps her is Kelly (Jessica Parker Kennedy), a war veteran who seems eager to help Sophie, but is otherwise underdeveloped.

After falling asleep that night, Sophie awakens to discover that three men - and another on the other end of a phone call - have broken into the home and are trying to get into its safe to steal something. They realize they are not alone, and the film becomes a game of cat and mouse between Sophie and the men, who vary in personality from seemingly harmless to a vicious killer.

Sophie calls Kelly back to help her try to escape from the men, and from there the film mostly goes exactly where you'd expect it to go. "See for Me" is a skillfully made thriller and Davenport is convincing in the lead role. But the picture is otherwise lacking in explanation and character motivation. 

Because we don't know the circumstances of Sophie's blindness, it's unclear whether her inability to accept help from others stems from that. We don't know why she quit skiing, especially if she was already blind, and took up stealing. The motivation for the villains - one of whom has a connection with the homeowner - is fairly simplistic, and Kelly only exists to allow for the film's setup, which is a mix between an old school home invasion thriller and a first-person video game. Overall, "See for Me" isn't bad, but its central concept feels more like a gimmick since it is otherwise underdeveloped in crucial areas.