The Ticket (I) (2016) User Reviews

Sincerity and a good idea are starting points, but not enough here

[secondtake · 6/10 · 15 July 2017]

The Ticket (2016)

A serious movie, and sincere. The obvious thrust is the poster lines, and this is no spoiler—a man who has been blind for a decade gains his sight back. The metaphor here (and repeated throughout) is that it's like winning the lottery (hence the title of the film).

Now what?

Slowly (too slowly for most of us) the man goes through several broad phases as he reassesses his world, both personally and physically (viusally) around him. The euphoria, the wanting more, the doubts, the challenges, each section is simple (to the point of simplistic, I think) but heartfelt. The leading character (played by Dan Stevens) is compelling enough as a regular guy swept up with things bigger than most of us encounter.

It's maybe unfair to say this isn't enough—but it isn't. It's a lot, but there needs to be other layers, complications of plot, but also nuances of feeling that someone in this situation would experience. It would not and could not be an easy arc from one zone to another. Disruption should be really ruinous and ecstatic, not a dull slow ride.

Also, and an odd comment but needed to be made—the audio is weird. A lot of the film is murmured, as if people are conversing their inner best. But much of the time a gentle music also plays and it's just plain hard to hear! Mood triumphs over content, but it's not enough.

stuck in art-house mode

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 10 August 2017]

James (Dan Stevens) is blind, married to Sam (Malin Akerman) with young son Jonah. He works at a call center with other blind people including his friend Bob (Oliver Platt). One morning, he wakes up cured of his blindness. His personality changes. His flirtations with co-worker Jessica (Kerry Bishé) get serious.

There are some good actors doing good work but this movie is stuck in a slow, disjointed, cold art-house world. It also fails as a character study for a simple reason. His change at the very start makes it hard to know James' personality before his turn. It's hard to know the degree of his change, or feel for Sam's loss. This film just leaves me feeling cold and pining for the lost potential.

Melodrama at a slow pace, unattractive

[orenh99 · 4/10 · 2 January 2018]

A film with many details that lead nowhere, All movie scenes are predictable - and became to me a very slow paced melodrama that, I didn't really enjoy. the dialogue between the characters is dry, not developing, heavy. In general this movie is stuck in a slow is neither interesting nor intriguing.

Rather Depressive Melodrama

[larrys3 · 5/10 · 7 June 2017]

Dan Stevens stars here as James, a man who suddenly regains his sight, after many years, when a pituitary brain tumor shrinks. At first, he celebrates with his loving wife Sam (Malin Akerman) and his 13-year-old son Jonah (Skylar Gaertner). However, soon James wants more in his life and this leads to strong marital discord and his engaging in shady and manipulative business practices at his real estate company job.

This will all eventually lead to predictable consequences, and the film became to me a very slow paced melodrama that I didn't really enjoy. The very vague and ambiguous ending certainly didn't help any either.

Tries to have a deeper meaning, but that meaning isn't as deep as it wants to be

[midas-jacobs · 7/10 · 16 April 2017]

In "The Ticket" we get to meet a blind man, who regains his vision in the beginning of the film. When he does, he starts to pay more attention to his exterior, starts to buy fancier things and basically becomes an asshole.

The film was directed by Ido Fluk in a visually fine way, but in other ways lesser good. The shots looked nice, with some good use of shadow. They also play around with the use of focus and lighting, which really fits the film. The color grading was nice and it reminded me quite a lot of the film "Demolition", staring Jake Gyllenhaal, which was a notable better film than this one. But it did make sense that the film would look very good, because the main character is able to see again, so the world must look gorgeous to him, which the film succeeded at doing. I liked what they did in the beginning of the film: they put us in complete darkness, with only the voices of characters in the background. From that moment we know that we're seeing things from the perspective of Dan Stevens' character: blind. But slowly the light starts to come through the iris of Stevens, and we feel how he regains his sight. They really sold me on that opening scene, but what was to come, was quite disappointing in comparison to that. What the director tried to do was to give the film a deeper meaning, which I thoroughly understand. It's an independent film and it wants to draw attention, so why not do it by making the film a bit odd, and by having it have a deeper meaning. This deeper meaning though, wasn't as deep as it wants to be. It's pretty obvious from the get-go, namely: when man is granted something big, it's doomed to fail. The film also does get boring pretty fast. The way characters speak in a very soft manner, the soft colors and the slow soundtrack all made the film feel longer than it was and made it feel very boring.

The acting wasn't a flaw, though. It was one of the best parts of the film even. Dan Stevens, who played the main character, has proved since 2014 in "The Guest" that he's a wonderful actor. Since then he's only been growing. This year he was phenomenal in "Legion" and in this film to he really sold it. The kid actor, Skylar Gaertner too was pretty good, just not as good as Dan Stevens, as he overshadows quite a lot of the cast. Skylar Gaertner played the son of Dan Stevens and there was a fun dynamic between the two of them. Someone else who was pretty good is Oliver Platt, who played the blind friend of James (Dan Stevens). The rest of the supporting cast also did quite a good job, but just like the kid actor they were overshadowed by the wonderful acting of Dan Stevens.

The main premise was good, but not well enough explored, which is quite a shame, because it all sounds so interesting. They only bring it up to create some tension between Oliver Platt and Dan Stevens, because Platt is still blind, whereas Stevens has regained sight. They glance over the regaining sight, which I would've liked to see a more in depth approach to. The screenplay by the way was also written by the director, Ido Fluk. I like when directors do this, because it shows the dedication that they put into this film, and it shows in the final result. I liked that they evolve Dan Stevens' character, but I don't like how they do it. We get introduced to James when he regains his vison, it was a good scene, but due to this we don't get to know him when he was blind, because when he regains his sight he turns into a total asshole and I don't really get the motivation for becoming one. So I believe that if we got introduced to him earlier, we got to sympathize with him, so we later could understand why he changed and by doing that the development wouldn't be as abrupt as it was now. But only the part where he turns into an asshole was handled badly, the other developments were more subtle and made me care more for James. The other characters weren't highlighted as much as Stevens, which is really understandable, because the film is told from his perspective and the other characters really don't need any development, so I found no problem in that.

In the end "The Ticket" was an OK film that's worth your time. The deeper lying message was pretty obvious, but the visuals totally make up for it. The acting was wonderful, but at times the character motivation is lacking. That's why this film gets a 6.5/10 from me.

Waste of talent

[Laiath · 3/10 · 7 May 2017]

It's always sad to see good actors in badly made movies, and this is one of those. The story in itself isn't half bad, but there's simply too much to adequately cover in less than two hours. If every plot arc in this movie were made into a TV episode, it would be worth watching. As it stands, however, I found myself questioning the characters' common sense at best and IQ levels at worst.

As for the ending: it's a blatant disregard of the ego; humans simply don't work that way. Just saying.

The Ticket Review -

[geraldohanna · 7/10 · 11 April 2017]

We all ask ourselves if given the chance would we reach out and grab that lottery ticket if given to us? The idea of everything being handed to us after enduring for so long. Ido Fluk and Sharon Mashihi understand this and perhaps manipulate this into greed and lust - Perhaps? "The Ticket" presents this question, but like most thought provoking questions - This film has no answer for you.

Directed Ido Fluk, from a script written by Fluk and Sharon Mashihi. "The Ticket" stars Dan Stevens (The Guest) as James, a man blind from youth, with a comfortable life with his wife Sam (Malin Åkerman) and son Jonah (Skylar Gaertner). One day he regains his vision discovering he's not happy or contempt with his life - grabbing a promotion at work, leaves his wife for Jessica (Kerry Bishé) an employee where he works, and mistreating his friend Bob (Oliver Platt) one of James's blind co- workers.

Dan Stevens as always is fierce and enigmatic as James. Stevens is careful not to have you sympathize with James and the choices he makes along the way - But to ponder on each choice and wonder what's driving him. See, like each character in "The Ticket" (And there aren't many) they all have something driving them - something they want. Sam is fine and happy with going dancing, rather than an eloquent restaurant. She's also tired and Malin shows this beautifully. James, however, wants more, and Stevens never slows down giving us a moment to blame James for his choices.

Director Ido Flunk beautifully directs, with a unique visual flare centering around James's point of view. Where the film falls would be the predictability of its plot and lack of motivation for its characters.

"The Ticket" is a well made film with a deeply moving performance from Stevens.

Woohoo, I can see again. Lets start acting like a jerk...Weird!

[peterp-450-298716 · 5/10 · 1 June 2017]

"If you leave, you can't come back."

How would you react when you lose your eyesight at a young age, leaving you the rest of your life depending on others, never having seen your wife and child, with no idea how your environment looks like and working as a blind in a Call center for a real estate company (in other words, a hopeless job). And then one day you wake up and you realize you can see again. I'm convinced that it'll be a shock. Finally you can see how attractive your wife is and at the same time find out she's a real control freak. You discover you have a cute little son who's being bullied at school for some time and you're wife never told you about it. And the house you live in looks quite dusty and old fashioned with that flower wallpaper. And on top of that, you are satisfied because you see a pretty attractive guy when looking in the mirror. Time to shape up and become the better flirt, I'd say.

This all sounds quite plausible. But James (Dan Stevens) turning into an arrogant, egocentric jerk who only wants to enrich his personal life and get that promotion as soon as possible so that he can improve his materialistic life, felt a little exaggerated to me. Sorry, but the first thing I would do was to go to a zoo, an amusement park or the cinema for example, so I could admire what I missed all those years. But no. James rather starts an ego trip, forsaking those who supported him all these years. A beautiful example of someone who exchanged his physical blindness for a total emotional blindness.

The question is, of course, whether this was a natural healing or a divine intervention. James' daily prayer, with him thanking the Lord for his rich life full of well-meaning people, perhaps finally paid off. Maybe that's the reason why he came up with this luminous idea to convince people in church to sell their homes right now and get rid of everlasting debts. In his sales talk, he always uses the story about the person who desperately wants to win the lottery and prays for it every day. But he never buys a lottery ticket. I think the message is as follows : if you want to change your life, you also need to act in such a way that this change is possible. In my opinion, James is convinced he has won that winning ticket, after piously praying for years. But the actions he undertakes afterwards, are dramatically exaggerated in my opinion.

And how unlikely the turnaround is at the beginning, the more unlikely the turnaround is at the end. Eventually, it seemed the winning ticket was only valid temporarily. Or was it a divine punishment because James let the dark side of his personality dominate? Anyway, I saw the outcome coming a mile away (pun not intended). Personally, I thought the footage where nothing was to be seen, the most fascinating. An impression of how James looked at the world. A black spot with stroboscopic light effects and misty reflections. A successful demonstration of how a blind person experiences his sight. The most emotional moment was the turning point in the dusty dance cafe where James dances one last time with his wife Sam (Malin Akerman) intimately. Despite the artistic character, the many dead moments and the slow pace, Dan Stevens and Malin Akerman know how to give a lively and fascinating performance. "The ticket" won't be a blockbuster like "Beauty and the Beast", but will show a glimpse of Dan Stevens' versatility.

More reviews here : http://bit.ly/2qtGQoc

Thought provoking - worth a watch

[curtissewell · 7/10 · 20 June 2017]

OK, so my wife and I just finished watching this film and I can say that it was a little hard to not think that the movie was going to be not so great based on the ratings we saw for it. But as the movie went on it was surprisingly better than the ratings the critics gave it.

I thought the acting was done really well and the storyline - although a little on the slow side, turned out to be interestingly thought provoking… How would you react if suddenly one day you woke up from being blind for many years?? Would your ambitions change?? Would you allow your own selfish ambition to destroy everything you previously loved??

Though it would be a change indeed, how would I respond to that change?? Well, it seems that is what this film is about. One man's response to how he woke up one day able to see.

The movie does tend to focus a lot on James (actor Dan Stevens) much more than the characters around him like his wife, son, best friend, etc, but I don't think that was done too heavily. It just seems like the story was told in a way from James' perspective instead of from others. That kinda makes sense since he is the one who went from being blind to able to see again.

Really it seemed the worst part about the movie was the music. It was too dreary from beginning to end (maybe with exception from the dancing music). Seriously, it didn't match most of the film and had they went another direction with the music it really would have made a better impact on this movie. It seemed it never changed from the dreariness, but it should have. It really only communicated 2 emotions - sadness and mystery. Though those two emotions were definitely a part of the film, the story had much more to offer than that… the joy and excitement of being able to see again, the fun James and his son had looking for fish, the hope and comfort James experiences near the end of the film, etc.

Despite the seemingly wrong direction with the music and kinda slowly unfolding story, it's still worth a watch.

Seeing is no fun at all

[tomsawyer-01858 · 5/10 · 11 May 2017]

That's what I conclude. So he marries a woman when he was blind, and then sees there is more attractive around. So he was stuck in his career, and sees how he gets promoted when he sees how to manipulate people with financial problems?

Jesus, this movie calls up to God so many times, and the rhythm is really slow and boring.

Every scene is so moralistic, so foreseeable. No wit in sight. Except the confrontation with his old blind job buddy in the café.

Of course you would expect him to become blind again. At the beginning of the movie, you see him recovering light from the dark.

At the end, I expected nothing but a black screen for 10 minutes I think the producers probably refused the intellectual idea, because the director's name wasn't Lars van Trier.

Shame, it was a good project, and the acting of Dan Stevens was really brilliant, but he was very lonesome.

Don't listen to the naysayers

[ccreagor · 8/10 · 6 August 2017]

I don't usually exert the effort to write a review, but it's something of a crime that this movie gets such low reviews on IMDb. The other reviewers are the type of people who feel the need to cast their judgment on a film just because it doesn't fit their very narrow definition of a worthwhile film. Does The Ticket ask more questions than it answers? Sure. But you could hardly say it moves too fast to adequately deal with them. One of the beauties of this film is its slow, methodical pace. And the cinematography alone is worth your time. Don't pass judgment based on this film's reviews and decide for yourself.

I found this intriguing

[justahunch-70549 · 7/10 · 23 November 2022]

It's certainly not perfect, but this is a very interesting and extremely original film about a blind married man, apparently warm, kind and loving, who miraculously regains his sight and how it changes him. At first he is amazed at seeing many things for the first time, but he slowly grows to become vain, aggressive, materialistic, interested in better housing, other better looking women, leaves his wife after having inaccurate doubts about her reasoning for marrying a blind man (pitying & being in control of him). He is also somewhat cruel to his best friend when he was blind. He becomes an unlikeable person. I would like to say more as I have different thoughts about this transition, but I can't say much as it would give away too much of its ending, though a part of that ending is a tad unclear. Dan Stevens is a wonderful actor. I've seen him in a few things, most recently the fascinating German film, I'm Your Man (He's fluent in German) and he has a long list of theater, film and television credits. He is very good here and this is, again, a very interesting film.

Cannot Recommend

[mkd002 · 3/10 · 19 August 2017]

Streamed this based on a general interest in following Dan Stevens's post-"Downton" career. Owing to this film's totally amateur sound editing, I could not learn critical information about what these characters were like before the health change that became a key trigger for the whole story. Did not know how and why the marriage seemed to work despite hurdles that many would find crushing, or whether the Dan character had ever before shown signs of an aggressive, competitive personality. I just went from one mumbling, whispering personal scene after another to the not only clear but blasting country songs at the dance venue and totally audible phone sales pitches in the workplace. It's only in the indispensable character-developing scenes that this film leaves us high and dry and totally frustrated.

From his IMDb bio page, it looks as if director Ido Fluk has only one 2011 feature-length film to his credit before 2016's "The Ticket," with short films and writing credits (including this film) and assistant directorships in his history. I cannot see how Dan's early (and awkward for everyone!!) departure from "Downton" has led him to projects this lacking in production professionalism and I hope he can right his ship very, very soon. His and Oliver Platt's work is excellent, but how many times can he afford to risk straight-to-DVD oblivion while groping for a long-lasting film career?

I didn't finish watching it and don't care how it ended.

[Chryspie1102 · 5/10 · 10 June 2017]

To be fair, I am a "mood watcher" meaning, I have to be int the mood for certain things like movies and music. That being said, I did try to watch it several different times and at no point did this movie grab me in any way other than WTF is wrong with this woman (the wife) and she is clearly dysfunctional.

Don't get me wrong, the acting was great. It was the story. They could have done so much more with it to make it more interesting or to make the characters have more life to them. To me it seemed flat and I couldn't feel connected to any of the characters at all. I certainly didn't feel sorry for the controlling needy wife or the husband that forgot what it felt like to be blind.

Long story short, it was meh. I watched 3 quarters of it and just didn't care how it ended. It felt like a 6 hour movie. I felt every minute of watching it.

Just rented today. Good Too hot to go outside flick

[getadisasterkit · 6/10 · 16 June 2017]

Just saw this (Spoiler ALERT)....nothing else to rent so rented this one...figuring it was probably a chick flick. I give it 2.5-3 stars. Probably was deeper than what I saw it as. Not to spoil it for you but to give you the premise...you can go deeper into the movie if you would like....Guy is blind, guy miraculously gets his vision back, guy become successful by becoming greedy, guy looses family, in the end...well...guy. looses his eye sight again......you can put 2 and 2 together and see the human drama unfolding...not an action flick but human drama with a proverbial moral. Acting..GOOD, a solid 6.5 out of 10, production 5 out of 10.

Predictable Moralistic Fable

[LoraceDem · 1/10 · 28 July 2017]

This film was really rather pointless and predictable in the end. If it wasn't so suffused with obvious religious morality (since the movie assumes it must be absolutely wrong to get a divorce, get promoted/make money at work and start a new life) it could have been an interesting drama. I think it's actually insulting to people with disabilities to present the idea that if they became able they would be 'superficial' and 'mean' as a result.

Slow moving and not as deep as thought of

[Floated2 · 2/10 · 7 January 2021]

Relatively a simple story with a plot which may seem somewhat realistic in a sense. This film turned out to be lesser than what expected. Had relatively higher expectations and they fell short of what was watched.

As a film this is rather slow moving and at many times quite boring. Expected there to be some sort of twists, or any sense of thrills, suspense or mystery. However it was relatively standard, straightforward and ultimately predictable. Well it was shot quite nice as the visuals do stand out.

There was very little emotion shown by the lead Dan Stevens as we see him gain his vision yet everything seemed very subtle.

What was confusing is how he suddenly regained his vision as it didn't mention if he had taken any medicine or anything. Yet one day he wakes up and he can suddenly see. There were several religious undertones throughout as we are led to believe it was a "miracle of God".

Afterwards when he gains his vision, we see his attitude slightly change as he cheats on his wife with a coworker. Suddenly his wife (Malik Akerman) moves out (this was bizarre as there wasn't much shown- no big fight it following scenes showing much. Perhaps much was edited out.)

Then within the end, somehow he wakes up and his vision is mysteriously gone again- as in he's blind. The woman coworker he cheats with leaves him and when he goes to his wife, she doesn't take him back even after seeing he has become blind again. Relatively a sad ending yet it seemed to be bad karma as his character did change for the worse.

Overall the Ticket was rather slow moving, didn't offer anything relatively new or interesting and was left on a sour note. It was not deep as the writers possibly thought. Was disappointed.

When he got a rare second change to start over the life!

[Reno-Rangan · 4/10 · 4 November 2017]

The intention was good, but the film was not made right way to enjoy. Of course the story, the setting were not cheerful kind, but too slow, silent, dragged scenes, all made it even worse. Watching it from the beginning to the beginning of the final segment was challenging. Only at the final few minutes it all made sense. I thought at least it ended better.

A blind man happily married with a kid, one day wakes up in the morning with a miracle. He regained his vision, following that, all the sudden his life getting changed. That also leads him over taking some tough decisions. With his new lease of life, he has shaped his life as he wanted. Now a fresh trouble surfaces and its consequences are hard hitting. What his choices and how the story ends are the remaining parts.

Dan Stevens was good. You could say it was a one man show. But as I said, the screenplay lacked pace, as well as guessable overall storyline. Which makes it not for everybody. The rest of the cast was good, and so the direction. I don't dislike it, I just did not enjoy it, I got bored of it in parts. One time watchable film for the selected ones, but being not dozed off while watching it is what they have to look out for.

4/10

I actually really enjoyed it!

[xiaotianxie · 9/10 · 18 May 2021]

First, Dan Stevens' acting in this is just PHENOMENAL! He is such a good actor and can handle a wide range of roles. I like the plot too and think it is very real. Yes I agree with other people that there could have been more character development before James regained his sight. It didn't fully explain why all of a sudden he became an asshole after he could see. But I think what happened after he regained his sight was totally reasonable. Most people who win the lottery don't end up with a happily ever after. He let lust and greed get the the best of him and lost who he is in the face of temptations, so are most people in the world. I see the weight of sin and the limitations of good morals; I also see kindness and love, friendship, and even redemption. Yes the ending is kind of expected, but it is also very warming. I really like this movie!

One of the worst films ever!

[mal-86345 · 1/10 · 9 September 2018]

I wanted to watch this film as I loved Dan Stevens in Downtown Abbey but even with his acting the film couldn't be saved. I wanted to stop half way and delete it but I kept watching just in case it got better but to no avail. The story went nowhere and was so boring and monotonous so I don't advise you to waste your time on this.

An insult

[philkuttner-49058 · 2/10 · 1 June 2022]

This movie is the most insulting depiction of blind people I have ever seen, aside from some low-class comedies. It condemns blind people to dead end jobs. Speech-activated computers have been around for decades. I personally know a blind law professor. Blind people can be lawyers, doctors, teachers, musicians, scientists, car sales people, sculptors, politicians, rabbis, priests, the pope, President of the United States--in fact the only profession I don't think they can pursue is that of a painter. They can also be treacherous without having sight.

The main character could have pitched his idea, gotten the promotion, and manipulated people into selling their houses without sight. He could have cheated on his wife without sight. Since this particular character is handsome, people would have been attracted to him whether or not he was blind. That law professor I mentioned? He's a babe, and I'd love to go to bed with him.

The second star is only because the movie was realistic about what can happen to a relationship based on one partner thinking they need to take care of the other being deprived of that role. But the blind and deaf people I've met are fiercely independent. I mean seriously folks, Steven Hawkins was a quadriplegic. I seriously doubt that the script writer has ever met a blind person.

Dan, what were you thinking of?

Stevens left Downtown Abby for this?

[mafdenver · 1/10 · 10 October 2021]

My own fault, I guess - I thought this was about someone winning the lottery. Did Dan Stevens just want to work on his American accent? If sloths were capable of creating movies, this would be their masterpiece. S-L-O-W, self-indulgent, pretentious "film."

Spell it out

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 5 July 2017]

PLOT SPOILERS, although you can guess the ending, I won't state it.

This is a film that is something a high school kid could come up with for a Lifetime film. James (Dan Stevens) a nice guy who is blind, gets the miracle of sight and quickly alienates everyone climbing the ladder of success. The title if from a well know blonde joke that they ruined by taking out the blonde. Oh the political correctness of it all. And yes I saw the ending coming with the sad music and the fade out and that oh we are supposed to be moved about life feeling... which the cynic in me didn't get because I have seen these types of films too many times before and this one didn't add anything new other than the blind aspect which spared the camera man from using the focus.

A sappy film for people who think sappy films are deep.

Guide: No swearing. Implied sex. No nudity. Does Dan Stevens look like Trump's son?

Is God a ruthless?

[mbaghri-13799 · 3/10 · 14 July 2022]

1_ James's wife is a person who wanted someone to control her instead of living together.

2_ James's friend is constantly jealous of him, although James does not treat him well either.

3- Despite James's good looks, James's wife entered into a relationship with him out of pity and of course the desire to have control over a human being, and apparently James was no different to another blind person, and even in terms of the morals of James's wife, who at the time of James's blindness seemed like a person. It was wonderful, after seeing James, it became clear that he didn't even pay attention to the abuse of his child at school, and maybe he even wanted his own child to give birth to an isolated and weak person, and living with this person is like hell for a sighted person.

4- James finds an independent personality and becomes blind again at the peak of his career.

5 The final result - James actually got the ticket to hell. If James remained blind forever, he would never have noticed the darkness of his wife and friend's existence, and if he could see forever, he would be an independent and strong character, and maybe in the future he would be proud that he would have a better situation in any case, but God bless him. He made him sighted to understand what a bad life you have and he made him blind again so that he would have to go back to the controller with a beg, the name of this movie was: God's Ticket to Hell.

I think is a very good movie.

[fps-42410 · 9/10 · 6 September 2021]

I really appreciate the good acting and the great message the movie leaves you with.