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Movies / Upcoming / The Life Before Her Eyes
The Life Before Her Eyes

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The Life Before Her Eyes (2008)

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Reviews Counted:91

Fresh:22

Rotten:69

Average Rating:4.4/10

Consensus: Despite earnest performances, Life Before Her Eyes is a confusing, painfully overwrought melodrama.

Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for violent and disturbing content, language and brief drug use

Runtime: 90 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:27-03-2009

Synopsis: Imaginative, impetuous and wild, Diana (Evan Rachel Wood) can’t wait for her adult life to begin. Whiling away the final days of high school in the lush springtime, Diana tests her limits with sex... Imaginative, impetuous and wild, Diana (Evan Rachel Wood) can’t wait for her adult life to begin. Whiling away the final days of high school in the lush springtime, Diana tests her limits with sex and drugs as her more conservative friend Maureen (Eva Amurri) watches with concern. But Diana’s aura of invincibility is shattered when a senseless act of violence erupts at school, forever changing the lives of the two best friends. Fifteen years later, a grown Diana (Uma Thurman) is still trying to come to terms with the traumatic events of that fateful day. On the surface, the adult Diana has made a picture perfect life for herself. She’s still living in the sleepy Connecticut suburb she grew up in with her husband Paul, a professor at the local college. Her beautiful young daughter, Emma, is smart and creative, and possesses a fiercely independent streak reminiscent of her mother. But all is not well—as the anniversary of her adolescent trauma approaches, the darkness that Diana has tried to escape closes in. Meanwhile, her husband has become increasingly absent, her daughter has taken to hiding from teachers, and worst of all, Diana’s own grip on reality is starting to falter. Moving seamlessly through both stages of Diana’s evolution, THE LIFE BEFORE HER EYES delves deep into the crossroads that we all face—where a simple decision can change the course of everything to come, and where a lifetime can be encapsulated in a single moment. With THE LIFE BEFORE HER EYES, Vadim Perelman, director of the acclaimed HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG, has established himself as one of America’s greatest young directors of serious, probing drama. --© Magnolia [More]

Starring: Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood, Eva Amurri, Oscar Isaac

Starring: Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood, Eva Amurri, Oscar Isaac, Gabrielle Brennan

Director: Vadim Perelman

Director: Vadim Perelman
Screenwriter: Emil Stern
Producer: Vadim Perelman, Aimee Peyronnet, Anthony Katagas
Composer: James Horner
Studio: Magnolia Pictures

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Reviews for The Life Before Her Eyes

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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[Perelman] over-explains everything at the end with a montage of repeated scenes that ensures you never need see this film more than once.

Full Review Source: Little White Lies | comment Comment
08/07/09
Anton Bitel
Anton Bitel
Little White Lies

In the hands of the director Vadim Perelman, it becomes a jumble of dramatic scenes and disorientating flashbacks that merge into a confusing, stream-of-consciousness narrative, and the twist, when it comes, is a complete cheat.

Full Review Source: Sunday Times (UK) | comment Comment
03/31/09
Peter Whittle
Peter Whittle
Sunday Times (UK)

An American high school drama with a tiresomely familiar twist.

Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | comment Comment
03/31/09
Philip French
Philip French
Observer [UK]

A thoughtful, if sentimental, semi-successful attempt to craft a drama about life and choice around the difficult subject matter of a school shooting.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
03/28/09
Daniel Etherington
Daniel Etherington
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The movie’s relentless dream-like quality could induce slack-jawed wonder…or chronic narcolepsy depending how receptive the viewer is to non-linear narrative and super-stylised flights of fancy.

Full Review Source: Sky Movies | comment Comment
03/28/09
Tim Evans
Tim Evans
Sky Movies

A touching tale from director Vadim Perelman with a surprise ending that leaves you plenty to ponder.

Full Review Source: Daily Express | comment Comment
03/28/09
Allan Hunter
Allan Hunter
Daily Express

A sudsy potboiler with a twist you can see coming from the title.

Full Review Source: thelondonpaper | comment Comment
03/28/09
Neil Smith
Neil Smith
thelondonpaper

Part Elephant, part Jacob’s Ladder, moments of bruising power are dulled by overwrought symbolism and a baffling wrap-up.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
03/27/09
Rob James
Rob James
Total Film

Ambition and accomplishment are aeons apart in this would-be meaningful drama.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
03/27/09
Trevor Johnston
Trevor Johnston
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Surely the point of a “twist” is that it should slot into the plot with a satisfying click, not that it should invalidate 50 per cent of what came before it?

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
03/27/09
Wendy Ide
Wendy Ide
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Vadim Perelman's drama is both tasteful and tedious. With its honeyed visuals, affluent air and coy portents of disaster, it's like an advert for private health care played out on an endless loop.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
03/27/09
Xan Brooks
Xan Brooks
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The film’s dogged repetition of its pivotal scene has to go somewhere, but it’s enslaved to a narrative conceit even M Night Shyamalan might find a trifle gimmicky.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
03/27/09
Tim Robey
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Absorbing.

Full Review Source: Sunday Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
03/27/09
Mark Adams
Mark Adams
Sunday Mirror [UK]

Flitting back and forth in time, it's too confusing to entertain, while Wood and Thurman look nothing like one another, making for a disjointed and often dire experience.

Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
03/27/09
David Edwards
David Edwards
Daily Mirror [UK]

Poorly conceived, badly written and ultimately ridiculous drama with a jaw-droppingly crass twist ending that backfires horribly.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
03/27/09
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

The ending is as baffling as anything preceding it - giving rise to a genre conflict situation.

Full Review Source: Teletext | comment Comment
03/26/09
Victor Olliver
Victor Olliver
Teletext
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Screen International | comment Comment
09/29/07
Screen International

A hopelessly overblown melodrama, which oversteps its mark with pretensions of narrative complexity and social currency

Full Review Source: indieWIRE | comment Comment
08/08/09
Leo Goldsmith
Leo Goldsmith
indieWIRE

THE LIFE BEFORE HER EYES starts off as superficial, sentimental trite, then turns into an incoherent journey into God knows what.

Full Review Source: Sin Magazine | comment Comment
09/16/08
Austin Kennedy
Austin Kennedy
Sin Magazine

baboyriarika poiitiko aytohaidema toy Perelman meta to House of Sand and Fog (2003), ayti ti fora dipla aforito, horis ena kapoio stori na krybetai kato ap' toys koyfioys loystrarismenoys symbolismoys toy

Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses | comment Comment
09/16/08
Joseph Proimakis
Joseph Proimakis
Movies for the Masses
 
 
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September 22, 2008: BloggingSundance.com: An anti-abortion movement propaganda screed masquerading as a teen angst drama. There's apparently a new kind of female road movie out there, called the guilt trip. Opens in new window
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February 09, 2008: Trailer & Poster review Opens in new window
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