With In Your Eyes, Whedon proves that while he may have signed a deal with Marvel to direct Avengers movies until his soul bleeds, he still never said anything about writing other movies. Indeed, much like his bubbly summer evening cocktail party complete with a game of Shakespeare recitation in Much Ado About Nothing, Whedon’s latest film feels like a celebration of the high-concept and blessedly small budget. But it is in the smallest price tags that the greatest freedom is found. Directed by Brin Hill, Eyes is the second feature from Whedon’s new Bellwether Pictures production company, which seeks on a small scale to chart big ideas. And what could be bigger than a movie romance where the stars (almost) never share the same frame? Indeed, the boldness about this movie is its best feature: potential lovebirds Rebecca Porter (Zoe Kazan) and Dylan Kershaw (Michael Stahl-David) spend the whole movie only communicating through a form of two-way astral projection while separated by a frame and roughly two thousand miles interstate travel. Zoe is the trophy wife/pet lame-duck of Dr. Phillip Porter (Mark Feuerstein), the head of a major New Hampshire hospital. Conversely, Dylan is a down-on-his-luck ex-con with a dreamy smile and a dreamier disposition, as he tries to start a new life from his New Mexico trailer while still on parole. He may flirt with the local good time gal Donna (Nikki Reed), but he only has eyes for the girl who has been in the back of his head since grade school. And thanks to their ability to share the same mental highway space, he can see for himself, to his lamentation, that this doctor’s wife is just “so pretty.” It is a cute conceit that smartly chooses not to explain the mechanics of its amiable daydream. Much like the limitless theatrical boundaries of Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo and nocturnal cab services in Midnight in Paris, there is no explanation required nor given for this vision of theosophy Valentine’s. Logical justifications are for squares like Phillip. Dylan is also a fairly well realized. Despite living the life of an easy-going desperado who previously was a middling thief, he is more than intrigued at the possibility of inhabiting a woman’s body. But what he unsurprisingly really wants to do is feel that body, a desire which is reciprocated when Rebecca realizes her metaphysical Romeo is more pshaw than Shawshank. At first glance, Rebecca goes All of Me on Dylan’s Steve Martin and tries to set him up with Donna. He returns the favor by fixing (or covertly sabotaging?) her complicated marriage. But we realize long before they do that these two star-crossed kids need to cross the country. By the third act when old time friend Bo (Steve Howie) is hustling Dylan into a world of crime, and Phillip collapses into Whedon’s apparent continued cynicism for men in white coats, with all the moustache-twirling that entails, In Your Eyes’ early originality gives way to a surprising amount of formulaic unvariedness. Nevertheless, for the Whedon faithful, it is a curious proposition posed by a storyteller with near carte blanche these days to do what he wants. And in the scene where Rebecca and Dylan explore each others’ bodies like the paperback beach read version of Avatar, he reaches the bizarre exoticisms only Whedon would find in a meet-cute love story. If only a movie reached for more than the low hanging fruit. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing.