One only wonders whether distributor Magnolia Pictures and Perelman's cast and crew grasp the film's undisguised misogyny.
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
Reviews for The Life Before Her Eyes
Gorgeous, haunting and thought-provoking ... a solid sophomore effort from Perelman despite its potentially frustrating pace.
In between snorting and rolling your eyes, you can pass the time pitying Thurman, who has to emote in a vacuum, and admiring Wood.
Audiences used to having everything spelled out for them may find the film too much work, but there are, I hope and believe, many people who appreciate and enjoy unraveling the mysteries of a poem or painting for themselves.
A melodramatic portrait of violence and mourning, Vadim Perelman's disappointing follow-up to House of Sand and Fog turns Laura Kasischke's novel into an overly precious, pseudo-poetic meditation in which the pain of loss is indulged rather than examined.
With over eight months left in the year, it requires a certain audacity to declare that The Life Before Her Eyes is, and will always be, the absolute worst film of 2008 ...
Involvement is less than it might have been as sympathy gets nicked away by the effort to resolve the associations and meanings. The search for the "ah hah!" moment is exhausting.
Intermingles the past and present, and the real and the imagined, to intriguing if occasionally head-scratching effect.
Not as profound in its revelations as it wants to be, but with strong acting and a strong visual palette, it's a success.
...profoundly confusing In Bloom arrives at some very tenuous moral conclusions that might alienate much of its supposed target audience.
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