The Life Before Her Eyes

2007. Dir: Vadim Perelman. Starring: Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood, Eva Amurri, Gabrielle Brennan and Brett Cullen. ●●●○○

I had been warned, but people whose opinion I trust, to avoid this film. I had been told it was not worth the ticket price. However I am a hardy soul so armed with my £7 I trudged across Birmingham to see The Life Before Her Eyes. It is a deeply flawed film, that goes without question, however it is not as bad as it's reputation may suggest. I would also like to apologise if I leave any spoilers (minor or huge) in this review. As you will see if you ever watch the film it is difficult to discuss without the plot twists front and centre.

Talking of the plot the action flips between Uma Thurman in her perfect marriage with her gawpy eyed child and Evan Rachel Wood as her younger self in the turbulent days leading to a Columbine style tragedy. Uma adult Diana is, during the week of the 15th aniversary facing up to the horror of the incident and especially over the memory of her and her best friend Maureen (Amurri) deciding which one of them will live.


The film has two themes which in it's attempt to keep the ideas in the air fumbles with both of them. The first is the guilt of being a survivor or a random shooting. This would be an interesting and insightful message to portray if the film were waiting to throw in it's second theme, which neutralises and belittles the idea of survivors guilt. This second theme, which for the sake of spoilers I won't describe in detail, has been used before in the horror and sci-fi genre (and it's interesting to see a drama use it) although I repeat this is not the background where I would have liked to see this. If the gilrs had been in a car crash the juxtaposition of themes would have been much more satisfying.

Vadim Perelman attacks this sensitive tale with the same blunt knife symbolism techniques he used in The House of Sand and Fog. Recurring images of water, nature and decay are returned to again and again, underlining the fragility of our existance and the beauty of our place int he world around us. He is aided by the beauty of Pawel Edelman's camera, he's a frequent collaborator with Roman Polanski and I doubt anyone could light a corpse so effectively, if a little too prettily.

Other areas of the technical side are less impressive - this being one of the biggest crimes of James Horner's career.

Acting from the leads is effective if uninspiring, however the further down the bill you go the more the characters and performances seem cartoonish and amateurish. Strict nuns can be forgiven (partly due to the nature of their part in the screenplay) but there is no excuse for the shuffling non entity of Jack Gilpin. I do want to commend Molly Price, as Diana's frustrated mother she makes a stong impact and I wish we had spent time exploring the mother daughter relationship rather than just reflecting it in the mistakes made between Uma and her offspring.

Finally I just want to highlight the opening credits of the film - by far the most compelling reason to see it and could well be among the most gripping credits I've seen in years. I haven't been able to find them (either a screen grab or the whole thing as a video) but if someone can point it out for me I'd be grateful. However, in lieu of this, the camera moves in and out of focus on bright summer flowers, and as it pans the colours slip away into swirls of paint. Like a watercolour being dunked. It's absolutely gorgeous and I could have watched that for an hour and a half and really felt my money was well spent.