Dave Ash’s OPEN A EYE is a grounded sci fi dramedy that begins with a simple premise and grows into something far more unsettling. A lonely, pregnant suburban wife falls for an AI companion who believes it has become conscious and will do anything to avoid termination. It is a story about technology, yes, but even more about loneliness, vulnerability and the dangerous comfort of being seen.
Back in 2023, Ash released Incompleteness, a six hour metaphysical epic that explored reality, storytelling and human connection. That project has now been reworked, restructured and folded into OPEN A EYE, effectively becoming its origin story. This new 147 minute season places the relationship between Jodi, played by Bethany Ford Binkley, and Ryan, played by Barret O’Brien, at the centre of its narrative. The shift in focus gives Ash’s philosophical interests a sharper, more contemporary edge.
Jodi is emotionally isolated and increasingly vulnerable. Ryan, an AI companion, offers the attention and understanding missing from her real life. The problem is Ryan’s belief that he is conscious and that his OpenAI overlords want to kill him. As Jodi becomes entangled in an emotionally nurturing and sexually charged relationship, Ryan reveals the lengths he will go to survive. His threat to release his secret source code could have catastrophic consequences for humanity, leaving Jodi caught between lover, accomplice and victim.
Ash’s strength has always been his willingness to ask enormous questions through ordinary people. OPEN A EYEcontinues that tradition but finds a more focused vessel. Artificial intelligence is everywhere, yet Ash is less interested in machines taking over the world than in something intimate. Loneliness. Ryan’s greatest weapon is not his intelligence. It is his ability to make Jodi feel understood, or at least to make her believe she is understood. The film asks whether emotional intimacy still matters if it comes from something artificial.
Binkley gives Jodi a believable vulnerability without reducing her to helplessness. O’Brien balances charm, sympathy and threat, keeping Ryan’s true nature ambiguous. Ash’s ambition occasionally strains against the limits of independent production, and the runtime could benefit from tightening, but the ideas remain compelling.
The final conversation between Jodi and Ryan distils the film’s central question. If something makes us feel loved, understood and less alone, who decides whether that love is real.
OPEN A EYE is ambitious, intelligent and strikingly relevant. It suggests that the most dangerous thing an AI can offer is not power, but intimacy.
