In Your Eyes review

With In Your Eyes, Joss Whedon’s latest film as a producer and writer, the filmmaker is experimenting with a different mode of distribution. Instead of releasing In Your Eyes in movie theaters or to DVD, the film is available worldwide for online rental. It is a strikingly original romance with a twist. 

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The leads of In Your Eyes are separated by miles, but connected through a psychological link that allows them to see through each other’s eyes and feel what the other is feeling, both physically and emotionally.

In a prologue that acts as a powerful hook, a boy in New Mexico is heading to school while a girl is going sledding in New Hampshire. When she starts down the hill, the two become linked and when the girl hits a tree both are knocked out cold.

The film jumps forward in time. The boy, Dylan (Michael Stahl-David) is now an ex-convict, who did two years for robbery and the girl, Rebecca (Zoe Kazan) is the wife of emotionally distant doctor (Mark Feuerstein).

For years, Dylan and Rebecca have shared a connection that they’ve never understood. Rebecca has felt she was crazy and even spent time in a mental hospital. Now, for the first time, they are able to talk to each other. They begin to learn more about each other, talking to each other daily, which is drawing the attention of the people in their lives.

With Whedon busy working on next year’s “Avengers: The Age of Ultron,” so directing duties for “In Your Eyes” fell to Brin Hill. Hill and cinematographer Elisha Christian have shot a gorgeous film with the warm hues of New Mexico contrasting beautifully with the cooler tones of a New Hampshire winter.

Hill has also made visual sense of the seeing-through-each-other’s-eyes aspect of the film. Dylan and Rebecca are able to see each other’s world simultaneously like a double exposed image. Hill doesn’t overuse this visual trick, but it effectively brings across Dylan and Rebecca’s experience.

Stahl-David and Kazan go a long way to making the film’s high concept work. Kazan’s Rebecca carries herself as if she doesn’t feel comfortable in her own skin. Stahl-David’s Dylan walks through life in a hunched daze. He’s smart, but stuck by a series of bad choice. When Rebecca and Dylan start talking, we see them come alive.

Kazan and Stahl-David have tremendous chemistry, which is all the more impressive given that they share almost no screen time together. Both actors are essentially talking to themselves, but make it feel natural and unforced.

Alec Kerr