From director Randall Okita, See for Me tells the story of a blind young woman who must face off against a gang of intruders. But she isn?t quite alone. Her phone may be her salvation.
Sophie (Skyler Davenport) is heading off to a remote mansion to housesit. She has a very strong independent streak?to the point of rudeness. Her backstory, we learn, is that she was a very talented young skier until she lost her sight. Now, she takes housesitting jobs, where she augments her pay by theft. Yeah, she?s not the innocent young blind woman like we encountered in Wait until Dark. She has a friend who leads her through the house through her phone, as she searches out something to steal. Her friend says he doesn?t want to be involved in this anymore.
When she accidentally locks herself out of the house, she tries a new app, ?See for Me?, that connects blind people with volunteers who will see through the phone to help them out. She connects with Kelly (Jessica Parker Kennedy), a veteran who spends her day playing multi-player shooting video games.
That night, Sophie wakes up to voices in the house. A gang of thieves has broken into what they thought was an empty house to rob a hidden safe. After calling 911, she is discovered. When the sheriff shows up, things begin to go downhill. Soon, Sophie must reach out to Kelly again, whose video gaming now takes on an aspect of life-or-death.
The key part of this thriller is Sophie?s seeming helplessness. For all her desire for independence, much of which is driven by ego and anger at what she has lost, when the time comes, she discovers she cannot get out of this situation on her own. She must rely on other people?not so much to save her, as to empower her in different ways. It is in that reliance that she has the chance to grow. But we?re not sure if she has grown enough.
See for Me is in theaters and available on VOD.
