Henry O'Brien
Do you want to have a heavy dose of optimism that flies in the face of the increasingly chaotic and nihilistic world we inhabit? Do you want to feel OK about the inevitability of our own demise? Do you want to trust artificial intelligence? Do you want to feel good? That’s what Andrew Stanton, the creative Pixar man behind classics such as Finding Nemo and WALL-E, asks of us for his second-ever live-action feature In the Blink of an Eye, which premiered on Hulu on Friday.
The result from Stanton is a sentimental bore. The movie lacks any sense of movement or propulsion, even though it’s talking about the grand journey of humans from Neanderthals to inhabiting future planets. For a movie that attempts to be as sprawling and wondrous as 2012’s Cloud Atlas, In the Blink of an Eye comes up woefully short.
The movie is set over three time periods that are, *GASP* interconnected. The first during 45,000 BCE with a Neanderthal family (led by Tanaya Beatty and Jorge Vargas) trying to survive on their own. Next is a scientific research couple going through a long-distance relationship in 2025 (Rashida Jones and Daveed Diggs), and, finally, there’s a pilot scientist (Kate McKinnon) on a spaceship trying to find a planet safe for the continuation of the human race, centuries into the future.
In the Blink of an Eye looks to examine how life’s brutish and short nature can lead to love and meaning. Anthropology professor Claire (Jones) even pontificates as much about how death is scary, but ultimately gives us purpose in life to make the world a better place. Platitudes like these are shoved down our throats, and viewers never really get the chance to actually feel the beauty of the world.
Andrew Stanton’s live-action vision feels so limited in its scope. The nature photography in the first segment doesn’t capture the beauty or awe of a world evolving, aside from an opening sequence that felt like it was recycled from Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. The other two stories are shot in tight, contained spaces and rarely touch on the natural world around them.
The stories for these segments in In the Blink of an Eye are also quite hackneyed. The Neanderthal family learns to trust other Neanderthals, the Jones and Diggs’ husband and wife learn how to love each other even from afar, and McKinnon’s scientist, Coakley, lives for centuries and saves the day with the help of an AI assistant and children who were organically made on the flight to a new planet. All of the stories feature surface-level musings and are only the business of explaining themselves rather than experiencing anything. It’s the eternal problem of telling rather than showing.
None of the performances in In the Blink of an Eye adds anything to the larger messages that Andrew Stanton is trying to get across. Diggs and Jones both feel exhausted in trying to execute their lines, while McKinnon struggles to convey the sappy emotions the film wants, instead returning to her comedic sensibilities. Conversely, Tayana Beatty and Jorge Vargas convey actual decisions and attempt to use their facial expressions to move scenes along. They prove to be lone bright spots.
The rest of In the Blink of an Eye has a lethargic pacing where very little actually happens. It’s hard to even argue that one of these three stories should’ve been made into just one feature film. All three are so undercooked that it would’ve been better just to shelve the project entirely.
This misfire will receive inevitable comparisons to the Wachowski sisters and Tom Tykwer’s science fiction epic. Yet, the 172-minute Cloud Atlas, for all of its faults, is unafraid to actually jump around and interact with the grand passage of time, featuring a level of propulsion that Stanton’s film sorely lacks. Additionally, the film tackles thorny subjects like racism and bounces around from idea to idea while still giving them time to develop.
In the Blink of an Eye, with a runtime of just 94 minutes, feels cut down to the studs, heavily edited so viewers don’t have to get bored or get too confused on who is what, where and when. The final result leaves one wanting so much more instead of the hollow sentimentality that is presented. If death is an inevitability and living forever is a fool’s errand, then Andrew Stanton does a remarkably poor job of convincing his viewers that that is the case. That is, if you don’t fall asleep before the movie ends.
