The Life Before Her Eyes (2007)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Vadim Perelman

Writers:

Laura Kasischke (novel)
Emil Stern (screenplay)

Release Date:

5 September 2008 (Poland)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Diana's life is not what it seems.

Plot:

A woman's survivor's guilt from a Columbine-like event twenty years ago causes her present-day idyllic life to fall apart.

Plot Keywords:

Friend | Shooting | Best Friend | Flashback | High School

Cast

Uma Thurman	...	Diana McFee
Evan Rachel Wood	...	Young Diana
Eva Amurri	...	Maureen
Gabrielle Brennan	...	Emma McFee
Brett Cullen	...	Paul McFee
Oscar Isaac	...	Marcus
Jack Gilpin	...	Mr. McClood
Maggie Lacey	...	Amanda - adult
John Magaro	...	Michael Patrick
Lynn Cohen	...	Sister Beatrice
Nathalie Paulding	...	Amanda - teen
Molly Price	...	Diana's Mother
Oliver Solomon	...	Detective
Isabel Keating	...	Maureen's mother
Anna Moore	...	Blonde Student (as Anna Renee Moore)

Also Known As:

In Bloom (USA) (pre-release title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violent and disturbing content, language and brief drug use.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

Poland:18 | USA:R (certificate #43660) | Netherlands:16 | South Korea:18 | Finland:K-15 | Singapore:NC-16 | Japan:PG-12 | UK:15 | Portugal:M/16

Filming Locations:

Darien, Connecticut, USA

Company:

2929 Productions

Quotes:

Mr. McClood: And if there's anything I want you guys to take with you from this class, as you're abusing your bodies over break, is three things: the heart is the body's strongest muscle, that the brain has more cells in it than our galaxy has stars, and that the body is 72% water. So wherever you go over vacation, don't get too dehydrated.

Movie Connections:

References "The Magic School Bus" (1994)

One of the Year's Best

I also saw this at Toronto, and visually speaking, this movie is one of the best looking films of the year. This director's first film was the great "House of Sand and Fog" and here he confirms how talented he is. Uma Thurman hasn't been better as she plays a woman who is now well into adulthood, living in the small town that she grew up in, with a professor husband and a little girl. I love the way Perelman uses flashbacks here to inform us about Thurman as a teen. In many films, flashbacks can yank us around and cut tension, but here Evan Rachel Wood is so good that the two characters are seamlessly interwoven in a way that we are treated to a complex character study of a grown woman who is driving herself mad with regret and anxiety and guilt. There's nothing more fascinating than watching conflict that is internal rather than external, and Thurman here is so good, I hope she is remembered come Oscar season.

Just a solid movie in every way. Good score from James Horner, the guy who did the music for "A Beautiful Mind" and "House of Sand and Fog", equally lovely scores in their own right.