Blink – A Flawed Yet Adorable Documentary (Early Review)

Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) is a rare eye disease that causes the retina cells to break down, causing permanent blindness. RP is a genetic condition that usually manifests during childhood, and the main symptom is the difficulty of seeing in dark or dim light. Sébastien Pelletier and Edith Lemay are a Montreal couple with four children: Mia, Léo, Colin, and Laurent. Mia, Colin, and Laurent were diagnosed with RP and struggled with seeing in the dark. While absorbing that three of their children will be blind soon, Sébastien and Edith decide to fulfill their visual memories with different looks of the world. The family goes on a world tour where the kids decide what they would do, a bucket list of experiences they want to experiment with.

Blink establishes itself as a road trip documentary that follows the Pelletier-Lemay family and their adventures in the world. Edmund Stenson and Academy-Award winner Daniel Roher closely follow their adventures and dangers of exploring the world with children. They submit mountains in Nepal, eat different fruits in the Ecuadorian Amazon, drink juice on top of a camel in Egypt, and eat the famous Turkish ice cream. While they explore different adventures and various activities, Edith captures everything with her cameras to eternalize those memories in photos, which their central vision could see in the future. Edith released her photographs in ‘Plein Leurs Yeux’, a book where she displays the pictures of their world tour.

While it falls into a formulaic and repetitive territory, the film still thrives off the strength of its subjects. The children are adorable. Each of them have different quirks that add much to the nuances of the film. Mia is the second mother and cares for her siblings – she also loves dancing. Léo is genuine and energetic – he can befriend anyone promptly. Colin is more shy but very creative when it comes to playing. And Laurent is the family’s little philosopher who can understand the slimmest questions in life, even being so young. They all complement each other. They provide different details to each one of the adventures and they never stop being children. They throw their tantrums and argue with each other, but they are never encouraged to leave their imagination behind. It is noticeable through their bucket list. They range from climbing a mountain to drinking juice atop a camel, exploring the ludic possibilities of life.

It is tough to condense a year of traveling into eighty-four minutes. The film struggles with finding what to show audiences. It shifts abruptly among some countries and is incoherent in some moments. It tries to present a visual map that is not frequently employed. This decision diminishes some of the impact of that emotional journey. However, there is an inevitable celebration of life and seeking to live. The children are aware of what is coming next. Laurent, in a moment, is upset about not having a solution to his condition. He wants to be a doctor to develop a cure. There is a sense of time passing. When the trip ends, they will have to face the training to walk with canes and live in a world where accessibility is not ideal. The film is conscious of demonstrating parents who value constructing visual memories for their children who will face the hardships of blindness.

In the end, even though it struggles to find a constant rhythm and organized timeline for audiences, Blink is an adorable documentary about a family affected by a tragic diagnosis and deciding to get final glimpse of the immense world around them. It is bittersweet, but four lovely children turn it into an absolute delight to watch.

still courtesy of National Geographic Documentary Films

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Pedro Lima

Brazilian film writer. He is also a producer and executive producer for Zariah Filmes. Member of the International Film Society Critics Association (IFSCA), International Documentary Association (IDA), and Gotham and Media Film Institute.