At First Sight

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

An exceptionally touching and provocative love story. [15 January 1999, Calendar, p. F-4]

Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel

More of a physical achievement in moviemaking than a piece of storytelling, but I do recommend it on that basis. [15 January 1999, Friday, p.A]

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The sweetest little movie about a neurological disorder that we're ever likely to see.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Offers solid entertainment, it's too uneven to be considered memorable.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

A love boat afloat on the vast cinematic ocean that sloshes back and forth between the stinko and the fabulous.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Val Kilmer, clearly pleased to be entering the Oscar disability sweepstakes, does what he can as the hunk who learns how to see.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The movie takes fascinating material and transforms it into a routine soap opera.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Its moments of fascination and its good performances are mired in the morass of romance and melodrama that surrounds it.

San Francisco Examiner G. Allen Johnson

It's a movie drenched in narcissism and wish-fulfillment, almost a textbook on how to make a formulaic, romantic film.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

May be only loosely true, but it is thoroughly Hollywood.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Director Irwin Winkler (Night and the City)is rarely better than pedestrian in handling this story. At worst, the dramatic elements are plain clumsy.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Here's a romance without a spark of excitement.

Variety Lael Loewenstein

Although it's notoriously difficult to play a romance involving one partner's disability or illness without resorting to sentimentality, Kilmer acquits himself admirably.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

The pace is so plodding and the dialogue so unwaveringly banal … that the film can't rise to the extraordinary sensations it means to capture.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

For all the tear-jerking plot twists, it's a glumly dry-eyed affair.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

If "You've Got Mail" jangled your nerves with its Starbucks-fueled cuteness, here's a romance that goes down like instant decaf. [15 January 1999, Life, p.18E]

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Director Irwin Winkler and his cast obviously hope to shed light on the boundaries of love, and instead come up with a walloping case of the preachies.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

It's drainingly mediocre.

LA Weekly Paul Malcolm

Even when the film does strike some genuinely heart-tugging notes, they’re invariably shattered by such ham-fisted lines as “You really are blind.” At times, it’s enough to make you wish you were deaf.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

It's sheer piffle, a disingenuous romance with Val Kilmer and Mira Sorvino that's all sap and no sizzle.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

The film slips into a coma early on and never awakens.