A romantic comedy called In Your Eyes, written by Joss Whedon and starring Zoe Kazan and Michael Stahl-David, is currently rentable for a meager five bills on Vimeo. A Rotten Tomatoes rating of 64% isn’t unheard of, but it’s a little unusual. If a movie has problems it usually earns a rating in the 40something range or lower. 64% means “maybe give it a tumble…maybe.” It certainly doesn’t signify outright dismissal. It can also mean, obviously, a degree of approval. From A.V. Club‘s Jesse Hassenger: “At its frequent best, In Your Eyes provides a potent metaphor for a life-changing relationship, cleverly literalizing the way a new romantic connection can feel like a voice in your head that you never want to stop hearing.”
From Variety‘s Peter Debruge: “For anyone who’s ever wondered whether ‘the right one’ might be somewhere out there waiting for you, Joss Whedon has the answer in the form of a supernatural soap opera so first-drafty, only the faithful need apply. In In Your Eyes, two complete strangers on opposite sides of the country discover they can see and feel whatever the other is experiencing, which naturally leads them to conclude that they belong together.
“Scripted by Whedon and helmed by Brin Hill, this low-budget quickie plays like something unearthed from a junior-high creative writing journal, partly redeemed by a pair of compelling lead performances.
“Immediately following the pic’s premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, Whedon delighted his fans with the surprise announcement that the modest project would be available for immediate download. Whether that delight extended to those in the theater itself was quite a different question, as the thinly written and somewhat clunkily executed film seems better suited to laptops and TV sets than to the bigscreen where it had just unspooled. With the exception of a short car chase and a finale involving a moving train, there’s nothing here that a team of teenagers couldn’t pull off in their own backyards, including a concept so basic as to seem almost lazy.”
