The Ticket, starring Dan Stevens, is a movie about a blind man named James. When James suddenly regains his sight, he becomes driven to live a better life. He’s suddenly motivated to earn a promotion, buy fancy cars and suits, and move his family into a bigger and better home. However, as James pursues this “higher life” for himself, he alienates himself from all his loved ones with his obsession for superficial things. The movie is a complicated story of a man who tries to balance his newfound ambition and past relationships, but struggles with the idea of what truly makes him happy.  

What initially drew me to the movie was my infatuation with Dan Stevens, but I hoped that I would fall in love with his acting as well. I haven’t watched any of his previous works other than Beauty and the Beast, and although I loved it, I knew that this would be a different type of movie and showcase his acting more. After watching The Ticket trailer, I was intrigued. I didn’t have the highest hopes, but I expected that I would like Stevens’s acting, even if I didn’t necessarily like the movie’s plot.

The film begins with James’s point of view as a blind man, and you see a black screen with some light spots. Though you can only hear James and his wife, Sam, talk about random things, the love and intimacy in their voices is obvious. A few minutes go by, and James tells God that he is thankful for the life he has, and he will not compare himself to others.

Then, the next day, James wakes up, and he (and we) can suddenly see. You see his initial shocked reaction, so he and his wife go to the doctor–it turns out that James’s pituitary tumor shrunk. They are unsure of what to make of this and how to carry on, but his wife tries to protect and shelter him from rushing everything.

They are both blissfully happy, but after their usual date at their community center’s dance, James makes a declaration: “I’m going to have a better life now.” It’s clear by the way that she continues to respond that she is content with their life. However, James voices his ambitions as he says, “I’m going to get that promotion, we’ll go on vacation, I’m going to get a bigger house.” While his wife continues to say, “I like our house,” but he goes on saying, “…one with a big backyard. [I’ll] take you shopping.”

It cuts to the next day, and James goes back to his job as a telemarketer but is now miserable. As he and his family take off on a short vacation, his wife is utterly happy, but James continues to be more subdued and sometimes even discontent. However, when he returns from the vacation, he seems to have found his direction. He asks his wife about why she never told him more about his son’s life, and the next thing you know he’s cleaning out their house of all remnants of his blind life: Braille labels and his old handicapped watch. He goes back to work and takes special interest in the higher positions, even going out to buy new suits and a treadmill. After that, the plot starts to pick up as James becomes more and more controlled by his desire for a better life.

The change in James is clear in the way that he finds more confidence and begins to become more assertive and direct. This newfound ambition changes him, and his wife begins to become more uncomfortable with her husband. She does not recognize the now lofty man that prefers expensive restaurants to dancing, or the man that stormed their son’s school to argue with the principal. As James becomes more sure of himself, he starts to make more and more decisions by himself without talking to his wife. They start to get into arguments over everything as James asks why she isn’t happy, and she questions why they had to change what used to make them happy. You can feel the tension and unhappiness off of both of them, but they desperately keep trying to cling onto their marriage.

The acting was all very natural, and everyone fits their roles nicely. t’s actually startling how much James gradually changes and how natural it feels. Everyone seems like normal, lost people that are just trying to live their lives and deal with the aftermath of breaking relationships. You feel this family’s loss as your own. All the characters had quite a bit of depth to them, and I enjoyed how it showed character flaws in such an honest and open way.

I also really liked the filming and editing of this movie. There’s a general soft, warm tone to all the filming, and the editing with the music is pretty spot-on. You find yourself unconsciously feeling on edge or calm with the music that plays. The whole movie is easy on the eyes, and you can tell that every angle or filming choice was strategic and intentional. Sometimes, it seems as if the producers are trying too hard to make it an artistic, Sundance-like film with their occasionally overly done filters, but overall I appreciated the effort and think it worked.

There isn’t anything that I disliked about the movie. This is not because it was a cinematic masterpiece, but rather because it was kind of unimpressionable for most of the movie, and I didn’t feel much throughout it. I didn’t have any strong opinions about the characters until the last 30 minutes of the movie. During the first hour and a half, I found myself wishing I could hate James or Sam or someone, but I didn’t. I had no real emotional standing with either of them, but I think this was also because of how real-life the story felt. James is destroying himself and his relationships with his loved ones, and you feel anger and frustration, but then you reflect and think, “Can you really blame him?” In the end, my feelings started to kick off, and I felt a large range of emotions.

Overall, I think this movie was pretty good. I would definitely not call it a must-watch, but I think it’s a maybe, and one you should add to your list, especially if you love Dan Stevens. If you’re someone who needs a super interesting or different plot, I don’t think you would enjoy it because the movie is pretty predictable, and the movie didn’t pick up until the last 30 minutes. However, I found myself wanting to watch the whole thing, and I think the plot was dramatic and interesting in a more low-key way.

My overall rating would be a 7/10 just because it lacked a huge impression, but I feel like the plot, characters, acting, and filming makes up for it. I would not recommend you to go out to a theatre to watch it, but if you’re semi-interested, I would rent it off of Amazon.