From the 2017 Black List script by Colby Day (Spaceman) and directed by Andrew Stanton (Wall-E, Finding Nemo/Dory, John Carter, the upcoming Toy Story 5), In the Blink of an Eye was actually shot a couple of years ago and subsequently put on the shelf until now (well, technically until Sundance last month). What the filmmakers are attempting to do is tell three separate but also interwoven stories, set in three different points in time, all of which examine similar themes related to love, loss, family, nature, and technology. The resulting film isn’t confusing or in any way difficult to follow but it is painted in broad, vague strokes that will leave many uninspired and bored a great deal of the time.
The least compelling section involves a Neanderthal family that includes a father (Jorge Vargas) and mother (Tanaya Beatty), who have kids and a simple but happy life living along the sea. In all three segments, we follow the same character across many decades, so we see this small clan go through death, illness, learning to use tools and passing down skills, and making contact with a larger tribe, who ultimately take them in. The more modern of the three storylines is about Claire (Rashida Jones), a post-grad anthropology major studying proto-human remains (might they be those of one of our Neanderthals?), who is involved with another student, Greg (Daveed Diggs). Claire is a cautious type, and she’s reluctant to open up to Greg; but he’s a truly good guy, so she eventually falls for him only to be torn away from their school when her mother falls ill, and she must go home to take care of her. Honestly, this segment is probably the least relevant of the three because it’s more personal and less about the film’s larger themes. And the true connection to the third segment isn’t really made clear until the very end.
The third part of this cinematic tryptic was the one I was most on board for, and it stars Kate McKinnon as the sole astronaut on a spacecraft bound for a distant planet where humans are planning to rebuild. Set centuries in the future (that seems optimistic), the segment reveals that McKinnon’s Coakley is on this mission for hundreds of years but she doesn’t seem to age. Also, her only companion on this journey is a sentient onboard computer called Rosco (voiced by Rhona Rees), and the two must join forces when a disease begins killing off the ship’s plants that are supplying oxygen to her.
Unfortunately, the only solution that seems to work in saving the plants is turning off the power supply for Rosco, leaving Coakley truly alone. But we also discover that Coakley's cargo are hundreds of embryos that she puts in a device to grow babies, which will grow up with her as their teacher, and by the time they reach their destination, they’ll be older and self-sufficient. In a non-comedic role, McKinnon is truly the best thing in In the Blink of an Eye, and since this film is only available to stream, I’d say the film is worth watching if only for her performance and storyline.
When looked at as a whole, I suppose the film is meant to capture a version of the circle of life (an acorn passed through each of the segments is groan-worthy proof of that), but two-thirds of this movie failed to really engage or make me care about the outcome of either of those families. Far more intriguing is how future dwellers decided to set up this new world and civilization in the third segment, seemingly with the belief that we as humans would do better with an Earth 2.0. I blame the writing more than anything else, and I acknowledge that putting together a script about value of human connection is a tough assignment that neither writer nor director seems up for. It’s a nice-looking film, to be sure, but that only carries us so far, and as much as I love Stanton as a storyteller, his live-action endeavors don’t hold a candle to his Pixar creations.
The film is now streaming on Hulu.
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