In the Blink of an Eye, 2026.
Directed by Andrew Stanton.
Starring Kate McKinnon, Rashida Jones, Daveed Diggs, Jorge Vargas, Tanaya Beatty, Skywalker Hughes, Yeji Kim, Rhona Rees, Aria Kim, Tatyana Rose Baptiste, Nox Watkins, Tyson Night, Luc Roderique, Diana Tsoy, Andrea Bang, Lydia Campbell, Gui Fontanezzi, Tyler Peters, and Andrea Bang.
SYNOPSIS:
Three storylines, spanning thousands of years, intersect and reflect on hope, connection and the circle of life.
Ambitiously sprawling multi-civilization narratives spanning thousands of years – in this case, the 45,000 B.C., the present day, and 400 years into the future – are typically always intriguing on some level, and director Andrew Stanton’s In the Blink of an Eye (from Spaceman screenwriter Colby Day, which gave this critic some hope in the wake of harsh reactions and reviews out of Sundance) is no exception. Rather than take the anthology approach, scenes from these three different times and associated stories are edited together, all with thematic traces of perseverance, isolation, death, and how history informs the future and vice versa.
The earliest era concerns a family of Neanderthals led by Thorn (Jorge Vargas), eking out an existence and taking care of one another with quite literally whatever is at their disposal, all while passing down a sentimental trinket from generation to generation as they inevitably mingle with Homo sapiens.
In 2025, university student Claire (Rashida Jones) is laser-focused on studying remains from that time (gee, I wonder what family this specimen will belong to and what is attached to the hand…), basically temporarily shutting out the possibility of a relationship with Greg, listed in her phone and introduced on-screen literally as “Greg from statistics” (Daveed Diggs), but doing so in offputting, indecisive fashion that renders her almost unlikable. Her life is unexpectedly flipped upside down as they continue to get closer, yet she is forced to return home and abandon her science to care for her dying mother.
Roughly 400 years later, scientist and space traveler Coakley (Kate McKinnon) communicates with an AI that I can only imagine is an evolution of Alexa, trying to maintain oxygen levels aboard the ship while also trying to artificially create babies to bring to a new planet, as Earth has presumably been destroyed due to climate change.
Again, on some fundamental level, this is all marginally interesting in wondering how the filmmakers will pull it all together, hopefully reaching profoundly moving insight. Watching Kate McKinnon dial back her aggressively awkward brand of comedy into a real person working through problem-solving to ensure the continuation of the human race is not only refreshing but a solid performance. If something good comes out of this misfire, it will be her expanding her range as an actor and considering other projects outside her comfort zone.
For about 70 minutes, In the Blink of an Eye rides this wave of competently acted, moderately interesting interconnected narrative until the already invasive, overly melodramatic elements begin to double, triple, and quadruple until the whole endeavor collapses on itself. It’s a mawkish embarrassment that comes across as one of those emotionally manipulative, sappy Super Bowl commercials, except there is no product here to sell. Nevertheless, at a certain point, this film feels like watching the world’s longest commercial. It’s not so much about how the movie goes about tying these stories together (although that is part of the laughable problem), but rather how far it pushes its cloying nonsense in the Claire and Greg story, that, as mentioned, becomes so unbearably hokey in its bludgeoning of “a wonderful life lived” that one can’t help but feel as if a sales pitch for some memory perseverance product or AI is about to appear on screen.
While having dabbled (and failed) in live-action territory in the past, Andrew Stanton’s background is predominantly in Pixar animation, and one does see how the swing he is taking here could have been better suited for that medium. At the very least, there would have been more budgetary room to bring the film to life. That still doesn’t solve the emptiness and hollowness of each and every one of these characters and stories, but vibrancy would have been a start. Perhaps the biggest crime In the Blink of an Eye commits is that it doesn’t live up to its title, seeing as the initial intrigue, Kate McKinnon’s against-type performance, and time-reaching ambition are all for naught.
Flickering Myth Rating– Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
