Customer Reviews

The Life Before Her Eyes

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The Life Before Her Eyes is a chilling portrait of a high school student gone mad, leaving devastation in his wake.

Evan Rachel Wood portrays Diana, a wild girl who relishes using bad language and meting out her own brand of justice, while her best friend Maureen, played by Eva Amurri, serves as the moral compass. While blithely enjoying their day, the two hole up in the school bathroom, chatting and fixing their makeup -- and then shots ring out.

From this point forward, the movie plays out in a series of flash-forward, flashback vignettes -- we see the two girls swimming, diving, hanging out; and then we see the adult version of Diana, taking her daughter Emma to school, glancing nervously at a sign over the local high school announcing a 15-year memorial of the tragedy -- a haunting day when a boy fired into a school, destroying lives.

Several versions of the teenage girls' final moments are played out, with the killer asking them to choose which one will die.

What seems like a normal life for the adult version of Diana soon has us asking several questions: Which girl actually died on that fateful day? What constitutes reality and what is actually fantasy? Is everything only a flashing of "life before her eyes" and is nothing real at all?

The viewer must decide the answers to these questions. But no matter what conclusions you reach, this movie will haunt you for some time to come.

One of the most thought-provoking dramatic thrillers I've seen in a long time. The acting by the entire cast was stellar, with Thurman, Wood and Amurri giving powerful performances. This is a movie that will keep you guessing and engaged until the final credits roll. You'll find "gems" in it upon repeated viewings too.

While other reviewers mention details of the film, I think that more enjoyment can be derived from knowing little or nothing about the story before watching the movie. ONLY after viewing it, I highly recommend the BEHIND THE SCENES feature, which is nearly 55 minutes long and goes into enjoyable details of the production, characters, story, and cast. That feature clearly WARNS viewers that it is a SPOILER feature and should be watched after seeing the movie. My hat is off to whoever put that warning there. I think it's especially warranted for this film.

Laura Kasischke's intelligent novel 'The Life Before Her Eyes' has been brilliantly adapted for the screen by Emil Stern, and with the skills of director Vadim Perelman, this underrated movie in the theaters may find a wider appreciative audience in this DVD format. It is a film that challenges the viewer to think, to piece together the evidence, and to come to personal conclusions about the meaning of the story.

Diana (Evan Rachel Wood in an outstanding performance) is a 'loose girl' in her highschool who happens to be best friends with her total opposite, the moralistic virgin Maureen (Eva Amurri). While sharing thoughts and gossip in the school's bathroom they hear gunshots and rapidly become victims of a wild student's killing spree, terrorizing the school. The killer enters the bathroom, asks the girls to decide which one of the two will volunteer to die, gunshots blaze and we see Diana lying on the floor of the bathroom while Maureen shrinks beneath the sinks: the last gunshots are apparently the killer committing suicide.

Flash forward 15 years and Diana (Uma Thurman) is the beautiful wife of a professor (Sherman Alpert), an art history teacher, and mother of young Emma (Gabrielle Brennan). There is something not quite real about the atmosphere: Diana lives in fear and grief (?Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome?) and despite her 'perfect' surroundings, she is ridden with anxiety. When asked by a friend if she is going to attend the 15 year Memorial for the school shooting event Diana says she hasn't decided. What follows is a series of flashbacks allowing us to fully understand the young Diana's motivations and impulsive behavior and her close relationship with Maureen before the tragedy changed their lives. But gaping holes in the history of the event and the subsequent years ultimately force the viewer to decide what actually happened in the past: are we witnessing reality or imagined dreams - and it is left to every viewer to decide the facts of the story for themselves.

Uma Thurman is brilliant in this challenging role and Evan Rachel Wood is equally stunning as the younger version of Thurman's role. The entire cast contributes an ensemble performance that keeps us involved in this thriller from opening frame to closing credits. Vadim Perelman's approach to the story offers subtle, visually magnificent images that provide clues throughout the film about the division between real and imagined. This is a fine film on every level. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, August 08

From the very first images of the bright, pastel flowers, accomponied by the haunting music in the background, the shots of a school, a statue, birds flying, from those first moments of the movie you are completley entranced and swept into a story about the choices we make and the effects it has on us.

The Life Before Her Eyes tells the story of young Diana, a reckless, wild teenager who seems to not have a care in the world and her best friend Maureen, a timid, religious girl who instantly bonds with the wild child one day at school and they became strong friends. Then one day, while in the bathroom at school, a student comes with a loaded gun and begans to shoot down students before making his way into the bathroom and holds the gun to them saying "which one of you is going to die?". Fast forward and Diana is now a mother and wife, who finds her life beginning to steadily break down on the fiftenth aniversary of the shooting, where her actions in the past come back to haunt her.

The film, like Atonement, makes use of the surreal imagery, the director bathing everything in soft sunlight, giving it an almost dream like quality to it all, letting ordinary things like water, food, buildings, flags, everything just come alive, making every detail almost as important as the characters. Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood are both superb in the roles of Diana and Eva Amurri is another standout as the best friend.

The pacing of the film goes by at a brisk but not rush paced, giving just enough time for every character to grow and develop, which all leads up to such an ending that it demands an instant reveiwing of the film, where you begin to notice even more things you might have missed in the first and finding out the little hints that may indicate to what may happen.

By far one of the most overlooked films of 2007, this is a true art of a film that will leave you breathless by the very end.

Given the number of puzzled viewers I thought it might be helpful to just pull together some messages I have left in answer to various questions on the IMDb message board. I found it more interesting than any film I have watched over the past few years. But I like off-kilter philosophical stuff that merits repeat viewings and gives the brain cells some challenging exercise. And I like adaptations that improve upon their source novels. I like Evan Rachel Wood visually and as an actress. I like carefully crafted films where the director, the production designer, and the editor have obviously been in sync and have created a synergy between the elements; where almost every detail has a purpose and there is not a lot of throw away fluff padding the running length or trying to expand the target audience.

I can offer a few comparisons for prospective viewers; overall it is probably closest to "Carnival of Souls" (1962) so if you are a fan of that film I can almost guarantee that you will connect with this one. In style, Director Vadim Perelman reminds me a great deal of Atom Egoyan; so if you hated "Exotica", "Where the Truth Lies", or "The Sweet Hereafter" you would be wise to give "The Life Before Her Eyes" a wide birth. The story itself is a blend of "Home Room" and Donnie Darko (2001); with the match cut editing of "The Hours" (2002) linking three separate timelines together. Philosophically it blends the existential themes of "Carnival of Souls" and "The Wages of Fear" (1953), but I've not yet seen anyone else make this comparison.

STOP!!! If you haven't seen it yet stop here, watch the film, come back and read the rest, and then watch it again. Don't read any further unless you are prepared for spoilers.

The only scene that takes place in the present is the scene in the rest room. The other stuff is either Diana's flashbacks to her growing friendship with Maureen, or Diana's imagined future flashing before her eyes as she tries to make a decision. The flashbacks show viewers the process of Diana becoming less selfish and more responsible; a maturing that greatly complicates her decision.

I was not as blown away after seeing the film for the first time as I am now, although I bought into the friendship dynamic completely. I like it a little better each time I view it (including watching it with the commentary special feature turned on). Much of it is expressionism, which we don't see much in American films, so it takes a while to really connect with the stuff. And that requires you to let go of the plot and just go with the style and the theme, something easier to do "after" the first viewing. Everything is a literary device and getting caught in a plausibility trap will prevent you from making the connection needed to really go beneath the surface of the story.

The really incredible thing to me is how uniquely it explores the implications of friendship/conscience. There are rewards to friendship but also obligations (responsibilities) and if you don't feel these, then you are mistaking friendship for something much shallower. Diana's life essentially becomes a Hobson's choice; between something and nothing. And the viewer gets to watch as Wood nonverbally conveys the process of her character slowly coming to that realization. The "life before her eyes" becomes nothing once she understands the implications of that option.

The film is all about point of view, everything is being seen from Diana's POV except for the rest room scene which is from the audience point of view; where the actress Wood is communicating nonverbally with viewers in about the best acting sequence you are likely to ever witness. She is simultaneously flashing back to events in her friendship with Maureen and to parallel events in her imagined future.

Essential to understanding this process (and the film) is to recognize that she and Maureen have already spent a lot of time together imagining each others' futures; and that these times are central to Diana's thoughts and decision-making process in the rest room.

I think that the key sequence (which I only really picked up on during a later viewing) is when they are walking together on the sidewalk as the lawn sprinkler showers them with mist. The sequence is repeated later for emphasis. During this Maureen talks about how she used to watch flowers in a heavy rain. Telling Diana how the rain will crush the flowers, yet amazingly "some" of them are able to recover and bloom again as if nothing had happened. Diana flashes back to this and it is central to her decision. She believes that if she is killed instead of Maureen, that it will crush Maureen but that she will recover and bloom again. She contrasts this to the life she is imagining for herself if she allows Maureen to be killed, and the result is reflected in the crushed, decayed, and withered flowers that are symbolically shown in the later scenes of her imagined future.

Also note the scenes where Diana is searching for Emma. What the director and production designer are trying to communicate in those scenes is that the real Diana has already been shot and her imaginary future is unraveling. Watch what happens to the necklace the adult Diana is wearing in the woods (falling in the water in the woods coincides with the young Diana falling into the water that is pooling on the rest room floor), her necklace has broken and the stones are hanging in the same pattern the bullets made on the young Diana's chest.

There is a director's commentary on the DVD, in which he takes you through every clue and symbolic reference in his film.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

i love movies that get better the more you watch them and this is one of them. my high hopes for this were not let down at all. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

as other reviewers said, i recommend going into this knowing as little as possible... and do not listen to anyone that says this movie is boring. i know it's not going to be everyones type of movie but it is very rewarding once you understand it.

After reading some reviews online I was worried that this movie was going to be pretty bad, but I was blown away by how good it was. A controversial storyline which certainly holds your attention, not to mention the filming is beautiful. I've seen this movie twice and can't wait to see it again. A great addition to anyones Blu-Ray collection; although the special features aren't too exciting. I'd recommend watching this movie atleast twice to get a full understanding of what happened.

This film stirs the soul as deeply as a fine symphony. The central character is an artist and teacher, Diana McFee, played at two junctures in her life by Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood. The adult Diana is haunted by the mistakes she made in her dissolute youth. The film deftly handles the flashbacks that allude to this point, with the linchpin a Columbine-like shooting that ends in a confrontation between the rampaging student and Diana and her solidly grounded best friend Maureen. A fine performance can almost be taken for granted from Thurman, and she delivers here without breaking a sweat. But Wood was a revelation. Her young Diana as a teen languishing in a sense of moral futility was deeply affecting. Of equal note is Eva Amurri as Maureen, the best friend with whom Diana shares that pivotal moment. This film is too humble an achievement in the cacophony of Hollywood hoopla to draw much attention to these performances, but they are definitely all noteworthy. In fact, the entire supporting cast should be commended, as every scene seems carved out of cool jade.

The cinematography is an essential part of this movie. Though Diana as a teen and as an adult is chronically confused, her melancholy blends into an almost paradisaical richness in the air. It begins with insects dreamily alighting in a lush garden, color and life humming on her periphery, an idyllic refuge that is perhaps appreciated by Diana only in retrospect. The look of the film is unquestionably part of its point, and therefore the Blu-ray should be the first choice in viewing this one. This is an exquisite film of emotional purity. I was left pondering it for days.
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The astonishing aspect of this film - based (spoiler alert) on a dream - is its shear realism. One must admire a writer and film-maker who unflinchingly portray the emotional trauma of abortion. The fearless portrayal of a young girl being sexually exploited by an older "boyfriend", who uses drugs with her, gets her pregnant, and then forces her to have an abortion - and her resultant demoralization - undergird the film. Certainly, the stark horror of a Columbine-style massacre is the deus ex machina at the fulcrum of the story, but the moral failures and loose sexuality of the main character, Diane (played to agonized perfection by Rachel Wood when a teenager and Umma Thurman as an adult) are what this film is all about.

Consider "Emma" - the "daughter" of the older Diane. The name "Emma" shows up at various points in the film. "Emma" is a favorite name for young Diane, a name she would call her child were she to have one. She sees this name on a memorial cross (among many such little crosses) on a church lawn commemorating the innnocent victims of abortion (after Diane has paid her grisly visit to a "women's clinic"), and is crestfallen. At the end of the film, Diane's older self runs panicking into the dark, misty woods, vainly in search of Emma, but her daughter is apparently lost forever. Emma is the daughter which Diane never had, and over which she agonizes up until the last moment of the film.

Other themes appear, and then reappear, throughout the film, but they all relate to Diane's termination of her pregnancy. Diane imagines the mist from evaporating water to contain lost souls. This mist appears, and then reappears, at various times: while walking with her Christian soul-mate (Maureen, in a deeply humane performance by Susan Sarandon's daugher, Eva Amurri) after the abortion, while searching for her lost daughter in the woods, and again, during the very last scene where one is forced into uncomfortable conclusions about the true meaning of the film.

Another theme relates to the idea of the human conscience, how it informs one in making correct decisions in life, and the perils of ignoring its lessons. Again, this film is not about a geeky, evil clown mowing down kids with a machine gun; it's about Diane, the life choices she made, and their consequences.

The performances (by the women, Thurman, Amurri, and - particularly Ms. Wood) are utterly affecting and convincing. The music and cinematography build somber moments, interspersed with tense (and, at times, graphic) violence, that are well paced and thoroughly engrossing. The characters are given time to develop, and the viewer is given time to ponder the narratives and their relationship to (what appears to be) the main story.

The screenplay presents a somewhat morbid puzzle but it invites ruminations on life - and death - which will challenge, and haunt, the viewer long after the credits have rolled.

I just watched "The Life Before Her Eyes". And I must say, I was the one who shook my head and said, "What?" You all must be pretty darn smart to pick up from the beginning that this was not Diana's life. I went the total other direction and thought about "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" big time. Think about it, how would you like to have to make that choice? Then, of course the movie "Sophie's Choice" popped into my head, and the Columbine school shooting. Believe me, there was way too much information going on in this movie to be a last second thought, i.e. the abortion, the daughter waiting in the hallway while the nun told Diana she was a troubled child, the dead hawk with ants covering it, the cougar in the cage and the daughter saying "cougar" in a child's game while driving in the car, the husband asking if she was alright and her touching the "worry dolls" and saying I have to keep it together this week. Then there is the conversation with Maureen saying Diana knew who the shooter was and he "Mike" was going to bring a gun to school and kill everyone. How would you like to live with that guilt? I also dismissed the song "She's Not There" as a period in Diana's life with the older fellow that she did not want to be reminded of, so she turned the radio off. I deviated away from the director's meaning, in the second bathroom scene. When the shooter asks, "Come on girls, time to choose" and Maureen says, "if you're going to kill one of us, kill me" and they break hands. Nice touch by the way. But, it might have worked better if we heard Diana say the same words in the beginning not the end. Even when we watch Diana's supposed life, what a greater impact that would have been when the shots are fired at the end of the movie. It means the shooter is the one who actually makes the choice.... I will say this for the movie, it definitely makes you think.