'Blink' movie review: A deep reflection on the gift of sight
How do you explain to a five-year-old what it feels like to go blind? As Edith Pelletier grapples with the challenge of giving an honest yet meaningful answer to one of her three inquisitive children who will soon lose their sight due to an incurable genetic condition, she gently says, “Imagine having your eyes closed all the time…”
Edith and Sebastien are parents to four kids—Mia, Leo, Colin, and Laurent—three of whom have been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition where the retina deteriorates over time. The wide-eyed little ones brush off the term as gibberish they can laugh about, but for the parents, their lives have changed in the blink of an eye—quite literally.
The documentary, which begins after the kids’ diagnosis, establishes early on how blindness is a spectrum, with everyone experiencing it differently. From night blindness to tunnel vision to the loss of central vision, blindness leaves room for some light. For these kids, the first loss is their night vision, depriving them of simple joys like stargazing. This becomes the heart of the film, as the Pelletier family channels their pain into sharing endless happiness by filling their kids’ visual memory.
Blink brilliantly places the audience as a fly on the wall, with the creators deftly capturing the family’s emotional rollercoaster as they work to create hundreds of snapshot-worthy memories. At one moment, they are riding camels in Egypt; at another, they are deep in the Amazon rainforest. The family scratches items off their bucket list one by one, travelling to several countries, eating exotic fruits, learning new languages, and hiking in the Himalayas.

The National Geographic-backed documentary doesn’t shy away from showing the less glamorous side of their journey—dealing with sick, cranky kids who are tired yet curious. Despite the hurried screenplay, the film delves into the psyche of Edith and the children as they try to make sense of their condition. It gives space for their agony to surface, without deliberately seeking sympathy. Beyond Edith’s heart-wrenching ‘why us?’ moments, the most difficult scenes come when Laurent, the youngest, cries out of helplessness because he can’t see the football to play, or when the family bids goodbye to close friends to explore new horizons.
Even with their life-altering journey, the story never fully sinks in as it glosses over moments of doubt and sadness, choosing instead to focus on the brighter ones. While this is a strength, it also deprives the film of a complete portrait of a family that epitomises human resilience. However, Blink excels in underlining key themes, reminiscent of the final scene in Life of Pi, where Pi reflects, “The whole of life becomes an act of letting go.” In that way, Blink offers an audacious peek into the unknown, extending beyond our line of sight.
Blink
Directors: Edmund Stenson and Daniel Roher
Genre: Drama, Documentary
Platform: Disney+ Hotstar
Language: English
Rating: 3.5/5