In Your Eyes

I saw this movie at its premiere the Tribeca Film Festival. It had some really good dialogue and some very funny scenes. The movie takes a little bit of time to get its footing, but once it finds it the movie is interesting and funny. It occasionally borders on getting cheesy but the better parts of the film more than make up for it. It is somewhat predictable, like most romantic movies, but that doesn't really detract from the movie at all. The acting is really good from all of the leads and the chemistry between Zoe Kazan and Michael Stahl-David is great despite not having much on screen interaction. Director Brin Hill did a great job of making a potentially disorienting topic really easy to follow. The dialogue is very witty as is typical in Joss Whedon's work. There is also a lot of genre mixing which is typical in his films. The movie is successful in pretty much everything it attempts. The movie is very funny, interesting, and at times, fairly intense. Despite being a micro budget movie, it does not feel that way at all.

I watched this film off the back of its strong premise and the promise of a decent acting performance from the usually brilliant Zoe Kazan. I suppose I'll preface my review by saying that I was disappointed, as the film seemed totally unable to stick to any genre it supposedly was. Initially pitched as a sci-fi/ romance, the film dwindled into a pudgy mess of awkward dialogue, ill-fitting score and incredibly unlikable and unrelatable characters. Whilst the plot seemed a unique take on the generally overplayed star-crossed lovers theme it didn't take me long to figure out that this was just another chick-flick full of comedically bad villains the likes of; the nosy housewife who couldn't paint, or, the women who liked her steaks well done. The most heinous of all villains was of course Phillip the husband, whilst not being wholly neglectful in his marriage, was just so unrealistically dickish that at times I did think Rebecca, played by Kazan, should run away with the random voice in her head. Perhaps this was supposed to infer some underlying theme regarding domestic abuse, but in all honesty the worst thing he actually did apart from being a jerk all the time was stop her from refilling her wine glass at that boring function. The old 'troubled intellectual' / 'Good Will Hunting' trope also made an appearance through Dylan's character, played by Michael Stahl-David, which might just have worked in making him a likable character if not for his continuous stupidity. It was particularly grating when the film tried to introduce the idea of his intellect through dry wit and the word "benign" when chatting with a woman at the bar... I mean clearly he's to good for this town if he knows such a big word. But overall I just found the film a hard pill to swallow as I cringed through nearly every interaction. If you must watch this film, or you have already watched it and are trawling through the reviews for some explanation as to why you just sat through such a "benign" piece of trash, may I recommend a nearly identical yet vastly superior film "The F word" ("What If" in the U.S) also starring Zoe Kazan but without the psychic element or the terrible, terrible.... everything else.

Average. That's what I'd rate this movie, hence the 5 stars. I wanted to like it, the idea was great and I love movies like this (for example 'The Lake House'). But throughout the whole story, something felt off. The character of Dylan was great, he was well portrayed and acted. As for the character of Rebecca though, there was no life or emotion. Her dialogue was broken and her character was just...boring. The actor, Zoe Kazan, shouldn't give up her day job. Her acting was atrocious and she really didn't bring the character to life. It was clear from the beginning that her husband, Phillip, was a controlling man, but she never showed much fear or uncertainty around him. It was Dylan who saw who he truly was almost immediately. What really got to me was that Rebecca was never scared of him (or at least didn't appear to be) until he institutionalised her. Then she told Dylan she was terrified. You'd think she would have reacted differently to his controlling ways earlier in their marriage because when she snapped, it would have been believable. You'd be expecting it almost. As it was, it was too sudden. It didn't feel like the right time. Then there was the ending...oh dear lord, the ending. So you talk to a voice in your head, who helps you pick the lock of your room in a mental institution, finally escape (after punching your husband in the nose) then run off with said voice in your head (AKA Dylan, the human form). Did it ever occur to anyone that Rebecca ran off with a convict while she was still married? AFTER he had broken his parole and stolen a car? Or that she broke the law herself? Does this not bother anyone morally? All that aside, the ending was sudden and blah. Something was missing for sure. I wanted to see Dylan sort his life out before saving her. I wanted her to fight her way out of the institution, not act like a damsel in distress. THEN after all that, I would have liked to see her grow a backbone and leave her husband. The movie started so well but alas, it ended in a tangled mess. I'm really disappointed. I know morals are a rarity nowadays and I'd be able to overlook it if many things were done differently.

Great idea (and SciFi is supposed to always be the genre of ideas), good, but somewhat lacking writing by Joss Whedon. However very mediocre direction, wrong casting for the female lead (supports looking way better than the lead ?) and way too low budget. It can also be considered a pot hole that all of the sudden their communication is at a more direct level while for 20 years they had no contact. There should nave been a major game changing event involved. Whedon should have directed this on his own and waited/fought for at least a 10 mil budget. This way he wasted great idea on a 1 mil ultra indie with way too off female cast that will never attract even a sizable narrow release audience. Maybe in a few years someone is going to do a rewrite and a remake.