The Life Before Her Eyes
| The Life Before Her Eyes | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Vadim Perelman |
| Produced by | Aimée Peyronnet Vadim Perelman Anthony Katagas |
| Screenplay by | Emil Stern |
| Based on |
The Life Before Her Eyes by Laura Kasischke |
| Starring |
Uma Thurman Evan Rachel Wood Eva Amurri Brett Cullen Gabrielle Brennan |
| Music by | James Horner |
| Cinematography | Paweł Edelman |
| Edited by | David Baxter |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Magnolia Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $13 million |
| Box office | $7,248,490 |
The Life Before Her Eyes is a 2007 American thriller film directed by Vadim Perelman. The screenplay was adapted by Emil Stern from the Laura Kasischke novel of the same name. The film stars Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood. It was released on April 18, 2008, and revolves around a survivor's guilt from a Columbine-like event that occurred 15 years previously, which causes her present-day idyllic life to fall apart.
Imaginative, impetuous, and wild Diana McFee (Evan Rachel Wood) cannot wait for her adult life to begin. While awaiting 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. Then the two teens are involved in a Columbine-like shooting incident at their school and are forced to make an impossible choice.
The film mostly focuses on Diana’s adulthood (Uma Thurman). She leads an apparently normal life as an art history university professor. She has a daughter, Emma (Gabrielle Brennan), and she’s married to the professor who once gave a speech in her school about the power of visualization, how one can shape one’s own future in this way. We learn, however, that she feels guilty about something that doesn’t let her sleep.
One day she gets a call from Emma’s school. The nuns who run the school complains about her behavior. Later, at an ice cream parlor, Diana asks Emma not to hide any more as she is always doing. “You hate me,” Emma replies to her mother's reproaches. They leave the parlor abruptly and as they’re about to get into the car, Diana sees her husband, the professor, with another woman. She hesitates about confronting him and instead remains in the middle of the street where she is hit by a pickup truck. On her way to the hospital she imagines that blood is escaping from her body. However in fact she hasn’t been hurt by the accident. What is happening is that she is remembering the complications she had following an abortion in her high school days.
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