In Your Eyes

In Your Eyes follows two people who have never met but fall in love when they realise their bizarre psychic connection. Although living totally opposite lives, both Rebecca (Zoe Kazan) and Dylan (Michael Stahl-David) have been connected since they were kids, experiencing inexplicable feelings and hearing each others voices, seemingly in their minds. When they finally realise that they are both two very real people, the pair strike up a relationship and both are able to escape their less than satisfying lives.

In the digital age, the prospect of falling in love with someone you’ve never met is sadly not that far fetched and is a theme that’s being explored more and more in romantic movies. In Your Eyes does something very similar to Spike Jonze‘s Her except in this case both people are actually real. However because of the reliance on a weird, inexplicable and totally implausible psychic connection In Your Eyes is far more unconvincing. Part of me has come away wondering if In Your Eyes would perhaps have been a much better film if instead of a love story, it was a story of long lost siblings finding each other, because twins are said to have some kind of connection. At least that way it would have been more believable!

Implausibility aside In Your Eyes is a charming and highly entertaining romance. The performances are great and the aesthetics are beautiful. The contrast between the two characters is beautifully constructed through colour and each characters life is so easy to get wrapped up in. You find yourself rooting for this couple who only know each other through, essentially, the voice inside their head, and that is surely a sign of a good romance.

Unfortunately In Your Eyes suffers in a similar way to Her; it is very long winded and incredibly slow. While this does add a kind of calm, quiet beauty to the pace of the love story it does at times feel like the film is never going to end. Some people may enjoy this kind of slow style where very little happens in the amount of time the film runs for, however some, like me, don’t. It feels like it could have been a good fifteen minutes shorter, if not more, and lots of lengthy scenes of nothing could have been cut down a sizeable amount.

In Your Eyes is a nice, visually pleasing film with a charming and very sweet romantic story. It’s an unlikely romance, but doesn’t rely on a futuristic setting or space-age technology, so for those not so keen on the sci-fi elements of films like Her might enjoy this one a little more. The acting is good, the story is sweet and In Your Eyes is an all-round enjoyable little film. The convenience of two characters the same age both living in parts of America having this unusual psychic connection is almost a little too contrived and maybe having two people of different cultures and thus much further to travel to be with the person they’ve fallen for would have made for a better paced, more interesting film but, that’s just me thinking up ideas! It does a good job, but could do lots better.

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