The Pelletier family could so easily have just been faces on some sort of tragic family commercial. But instead of wallowing in their sorrows, parents Edith and Sebastien did the best they could to turn that horrible luck into pure life magic: a ray of light in a dark, dark world. When Blink is over, you’ll probably start thinking over your own life a bit as well, thinking about inserting a little of that carpe diem this family was lucky enough to take advantage of…before its too late.
No, their kids Mia, Laurent, and Colin aren’t dying. But in some ways it’s worse. Those 3 (the family has a 4th son, Leo that isn’t born with it) have a genetic degenerative eye condition that will make them eventually lose most of their vision except what’s just directly in front of them. Mia already can’t see at night, and the other two young boys (between 4 and 8) are also fading fast. Searching for some agency/control, Edith gets advice from a therapist to give the kids as many visual memories as possible before their sight goes completely. As fate would have it, Sebastien receives a nice hefty payout from his work, meaning the family has a chance to take what would be a book exercise and make it real: traveling across the planet to see and experience as many things as possible before Mia, Laurent, and Colin lose most of their sight forever.
There’s a pervasive melancholy to Blink’s whole adventure as you might expect. The movie opens staring at this incredible aurora borealis, but only Leo and the parents can see it. It’s a lot of little reminders of the literal and figurative darker future ahead for the trio. Like after a great day of playing soccer with some new friends in Southeast Asia, Colin starts crying because he can’t see the ball anymore as it becomes nighttime. Or Mia, on the funicular from hell in Ecuador, starts to grasp how scary it is going to be in the near future. Mom and dad can feel all their kids feelings as well: dad seems to be in a good state, but mom is stressed out, struggling to deal with her lack of agency and ability to protect her kids from this genetic disorder. The documentarians smartly keep these sad moments peppered across this once in a lifetime journey, as a reminder that even the highs of what’s happening in Blink won’t stop what’s coming for Mia, Colin, and Laurent soon, and how their life is going to drastically change because it.
But honestly? You’re mostly going to have a big grin on your face most of Blink’s runtime. The doc becomes one of those National Geographic shows for kids, but with a family hosting the show. They find themselves in all these incredible places: Botswana, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal, the Amazon River Basin, Egypt, with their bucket list in hand, crossing off as many items as possible. Dad needs to learn to read the room a bit – who puts a multi-day hike as a bucket list item with 4 kids, 3 under 10 years old? come on! – but the kids items are mostly kid brilliant. Drink a juice on the back of a camel? That’s adorable, and the documentarians do their best to help mom capture as many of these moments, big and small, in the best ways possible. As annoying as dad’s hike request was…the shots in the Himalayas are breathtaking, and bring tears to Mia and other family members eyes (see the mountains at sunrise, GREAT bucket list choice). Along the way, they make new friends, and the parents get to see other kids like their own, stuck in unfortunate circumstances but also dreaming of a better life. As scary as their new lives will be, this whole experience has made the family stronger, and given the kids hope to handle their tough upcoming futures. The little coda at movie’s end shows that kids are always much more resilient than we give them credit for.
So if you have the opportunity, don’t waste more time. Go on that date with that cute person you just met. Take the 1 year job in another country, completely altering your perspective and life scope. Invest in that multi-level marketing scheme you were on the fence about. Ok don’t do that last one, but don’t Blink Twice, and miss the great chances of your life before it’s too late. In fact, as Naomi Ackie learns, don’t Blink Twice at all, it’s a recipe for disaster.