Passes the Bechdel test

At First Sight

Name: At First Sight
Released: 1999

1999. Directed by Irwin Winkler, written by Oliver Sacks and Steve Levitt.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
7 women characters. 5 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 3 scenes out of 145.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.

The film

First Sight is true to the title from start to finish. Val Kilmer skates in the dark appears FIRST to Mira Sorvino car headlights driving lost searching for her retreat spa motel. Kilmers FIRST visual memory links him coincidently to his last. This is a true love drama with Nathan Lane providing laughs counseling visual therapy. All stars emotional vulnerability teach the audience learning love matters in art, architecture, education, parenting, massage and trees.

Released: 15 Jan 1999
Genres: Drama, Romance
Rated: PG-13
IMDb: 6 / 10
Metascore: 40 / 100
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Virgil 397 lines, man
Amy 359 lines, woman
Jennie 59 lines, woman
Aaron 50 lines, man
Duncan 47 lines, man
Webster 29 lines, man
Ethan 16 lines, man
Betsy 15 lines, woman
Voice 8 lines
Falk 6 lines, man

Full cast, 13 people

Val Kilmer as Virgil Adamson
Mira Sorvino as Amy Benic
Kelly McGillis as Jennie Adamson
Steven Weber as Duncan Allanbrook
Bruce Davison as Dr. Charles Aaron
Nathan Lane as Phil Webster
Ken Howard as Virgil's Father
Laura Kirk as Betsy Ernst
Drena De Niro as Caroline
Margo Winkler as Nancy Bender
Diana Krall as Singer
Willie C. Carpenter as Jack Falk
Linda Harmon as Singer (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 145

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 4	5	1
5 to 8	16	15
9 to 12	14	15
13 to 16	36	41
17 to 20	12	11
21 to 24	25	15
25 to 28	38	33
29 to 32	15	6
33 to 36	11	12
37 to 40	6	6
41 to 44	20	30
45 to 48	12	12
49 to 52	9	4
53 to 56	19	37
57 to 60	8	5
61 to 64	16	13
65 to 68	11	6
69 to 72	13	30
73 to 76	2	7
77 to 80	10	12
81 to 84	12	24
85 to 88	29	40
89 to 92	3	8
93 to 96	11	24
97 to 100	7	11
101 to 104	4	16
105 to 108	6	6
109 to 112	0	17
113 to 116	0	11
117 to 120	17	37
121 to 124	27	24
125 to 128	1	2
129 to 132	2	1
133 to 136	0	0
137 to 140	20	20
141 to 144	0	3
145 to 145	5	6

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

CAROLINE: … we have a full weight room, lifecycles, stairmasters, a spa, yoga, aerobics, spin classes... AMY: I'm really just looking for a quick fix, here. Do you have anything that just involves lying down? CAROLINE: A massage. AMY: Great. I'll have one a day. Not too early.

JENNIE: I've got parent meetings tonight - there's dinner in the freezer - left corner. Nice to have met you, Amy. AMY: Me too - and again - I'm sorry. AMY: She seemed ... nice.

AMY: What? BETSY: Amy said you had great hands.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 44 are women's.

442 lines from women, 561 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

7 women and 6 men in the cast. 5 women and 6 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 2 of 1,030. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 37 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 39% of the words (4,724), men 61% (7,392). Women have 44% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

3 of the 12 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 27% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Irwin Winkler (man)
Written by: Steve Levitt (man)
Produced by: Rob Cowan (man), Irwin Winkler (man)
Shot by: John Seale (man)
Edited by: Julie Monroe (woman)
Music by: Mark Isham (man)
Production design by: Jane Musky (woman)
Costumes by: John Dunn (man)
Cast by: Kerry Barden (man), Billy Hopkins (man), Suzanne Smith Crowley (woman)