The Life Before Her Eyes (2007)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.5/10   

Director:

Vadim Perelman

Escritores:

Laura Kasischke (novel)
Emil Stern (screenplay)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

5 septiembre 2008 (Poland)

Género:

Drama | Suspenso

Frase comercial:

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

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Time Stops with Trauma: Flashbacks and Flash Forwards

Reparto

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)

También conocida como:

In Bloom (USA) (pre-release title)

MPAA:

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

Duración:

90 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Color

Relación de Aspecto:

2.35 : 1

Sonido:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Clasificación:

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

Locaciones de Filmación:

Darien, Connecticut, USA

Compañía:

2929 Productions

Citas:

Young Diana: Maureen, what did I do to deserve a friend like you?
Maureen: Um, something in a past life?

Conexiones de Película:

References "The Magic School Bus" (1994)

Time Stops with Trauma: Flashbacks and Flash Forwards

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