It's an underrated, and horrific little dramatic thriller that twists the noose at every turn...
Comment
06/29/08
The Life Before Her Eyes (2008)
26 %
Reviews Counted: 70 Fresh: 18 Rotten:52 Average Rating: 4.6/10
Consensus:
Despite earnest performances, Life Before Her Eyes is a confusing, painfully overwrought melodrama.
Rated: R [See Full Rating]
Runtime: 90 mins
Theatrical Release: Apr 18, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $166,373
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 and drugs as her more conservative friend Maureen (Eva Amurri) watches with concern. But Diana’s... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood, Eva Amurri, Gabrielle Brennan
Director: Vadim Perelman
Screenwriter: Emil Stern
Producer: Vadim Perelman, Aimee Peyronnet, Anthony Katagas
Composer: James Horner
Screenwriter: Emil Stern
Producer: Vadim Perelman, Aimee Peyronnet, Anthony Katagas
Composer: James Horner
Reviews
The Life Before Her Eyes has the core of an inventive narrative and a twist that probably worked better as a literary device.
06/08/08
Just ignore the critics -- in this case, we don't know what we're talking about.
05/28/08
Studio movies rarely depict Christians as fallible, thoughtful people who've been strengthened by faith but don't take it for granted.
05/23/08
The twist is exactly what you think it is, and it pretty much invalidates any emotional investment you can work up before it arrives.
05/15/08
Should my life flash before my eyes before my demise, I am certain that movie scenes will appear. I only ask that this movie not be included in the edit.
05/15/08
(The Life Before Her Eyes) is one of those films that you will walk out of just feeling very shaken up and disturbed.
05/14/08
That the ending doesn't play fair with the audience is a misdemeanor; the felony is that the filmmakers don't seem to realize what an ugly moral statement they're making with it.
05/09/08
... not so much a bad movie as an infuriating one, a pretty empty thing that wants desperately to be loved for its deep thoughts.
05/09/08
Director Vadim Perelman...makes a misstep with the well crafted but flawed The Life Before Here Eyes.
05/05/08
In the end, Life is a challenging success, with Wood's performance again affirming her status among the young generation of actors, and Perelman's vision promising more intrigue to come.
05/02/08
Top Critic
[J]ust when you think you're getting an interesting movie about women and their travails and triumphs, the whiffs of a Shocking! Twist! Ending! begin to appear."
05/01/08
And then, THUD. Like an Acme anvil, the ending smashes everything to smithereens and you're left as discouraged as Wile E. Coyote.
05/01/08
Diana pays for her bad choices perpetually, in large part through her self-comparisons to M, whose piety she alternately teases and reveres.
04/30/08
Full of fussed-over significant images and delicately planned interlocking narrative motives, and it's about as subtle and clever as somebody clubbing you over the head with a folding chair
04/29/08
What you get, in the end, is a pair of fine performances (from Thurman and Wood) and a technically well-made film that arrives at a foregone conclusion.
04/25/08
Thoroughly thought through and photographed with imagination and psychological penetration, it's the product of a very shrewd directorial hand.
04/25/08
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The Life Before Her Eyes
by: jen717 5/28
by: jen717 5/28
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