Director Brin Hill didn't make much of a splash with his feature debut as a writer-director, Ball Don't Lie, in 2008, but six years later, he returned to the Tribeca Film Festival with In Your Eyes. This one made headlines, in no small part because Joss Whedon wrote the script. The movie got more positive attention when Whedon announced that it would be available online to stream for $5 immediately after its festival debut. Thanks to Whedon's knack for characterization, Hill's fairly straightforward direction, and the two ingratiating performances at its center, the odd but fairly charming pseudo-supernatural romance is far from Whedon's best work, but it is worth the price of admission.
Rebecca (Zoe Kazan) lives a sheltered life in New England, married to Phil (Mark Feuerstein), a successful doctor, while Dylan (Michael Stahl-David) is a puppy dog of an ex-con living in a rundown trailer in the desert in New Mexico. They're both attractive and socially inept, but beyond that, the only thing they seem to have in common is what they experience through their five senses. You see, as Rebecca and Dylan discover early on in the movie, they have some type of unexplained cosmic connection that allows each to experience what the other experiences, whether it's a post-coital flush or being hit with a pool cue.
They quickly become obsessed with one another. Rebecca's presence encourages Dylan to clean up his living space, and ask out Donna (Nikki Reed), a woman he's been crushing on. Rebecca, meanwhile, loosens up a bit, which displeases the uptight, overprotective Phil. Eventually, their habit of conversing with each other draws the approbation of friends and neighbors. Rebecca disrupts Phil's important work dinner by reacting with terror to a small fire in Dylan's trailer. Dylan loses his job at the car wash because of his apparent mental instability, forcing him to reconsider returning to his past criminal behavior with his goonish, moronic childhood friends, Bo (Steve Howey) and Lyle (David Gallagher). It's a shame neither of them thinks to walk around with a bluetooth headset on. They can apparently turn the connection on and off at will, but like many new couples, lack all self-control. Eventually, they have to find a way to meet.
Kazan has described the movie as Joss Whedon does Nicholas Sparks, and that's fairly apt. There's never any explanation offered for the absurd, inherently romantic premise, and that's apt. While the main characters are well-drawn and sympathetic, supporting characters are mostly two-dimensional. This is disappointing in the case of Dylan's old pals and Dr. Phil, all of whom turn out to be cardboard villains.
There's a genuine poignancy and warmth in Dylan and Rebecca's discovery of the shared traumas of their past, and that their lack of fulfillment in life seems deeply connected to their absence from each other's lives. While In Your Eyes seems to be leading toward a beautiful fulfilling climax, the film resolves on a decidedly more interesting, ambivalent note. It's a perfect date movie for those who wish the typical Hollywood date movie was just a tad smarter, and no more.
The film is currently available to rent on Vimeo for $5.