The Life Before Her Eyes

A tragedy of Columbine proportions is at the heart of The Life Before Her Eyes, a powerful and moving story told via a series of flashbacks that jump around in time, before coming together in an ending that will shock and surprise. Evan Rachel Wood is excellent as Diana, the teenager with a crush on one of her professors and who with her best friend Maureen (Eva Amurri), comes face-to-face with a classmate who goes on a shooting rampage at school and kills many of their friends and teachers. The film cuts back and forth between this incident and Diana’s future as a happily married wife and mother, with a seemingly idyllic life and a teacher of art history. As the 15th anniversary of the shootings approach, Diana reminisces about the sequence of events that drastically altered her life and it’s here, where we’re allowed glimpses of young Diana and the life she led up until the event. Thurman’s Diana seems uneasy, as if there’s something other than the anniversary creeping her out and sure enough, there is. To say any more would spoil the ending, but I can say that the cinematography is gorgeous and director Vadim Perelman has just the right touch in peeling away the layers that are Diana and the flashbacks never seem out of place or forced. The Life Before Her Eyes is elegant and moving, but the big pleasures come from the strong performances by Thurman, Wood and the supporting cast who play their parts with smarts and sensitivity.

Posted in DVD Reviews, Reviews