In Bloom (film)
Encyclopedia
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.
) 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 complain 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.
The day of the 15th anniversary of the shooting, a memorial is held at the school. Diana drives in front of the school several times until she finally decides to stop and bring in some flowers. As she enters the school she’s asked whether she’s one of the survivors. She doesn’t answer and simply walks inside, first leaving flowers on some desks and then moving on to the rest rooms where one of the shootings took place. At that moment she gets a call from Emma’s school; Emma is missing. Diana is told that a pink piece of clothing has been found in the woods. She drives there and walks through the woods, shouting out her daughter's name. Emma appears before Diana’s eyes for a moment but then vanishes almost as soon as she has appeared.
We’re taken back to the rest rooms in the school where Diana left the flowers. This is the place where she and Maureen were forced to decide which of them should survive. Maureen had offered herself first, but the shooter, Michael Patrick (John Magaro
), asks Diana why it shouldn't be her; she acquiesces and asks to be killed. She is then shot and dies. All that we’ve seen earlier in the film is what Diana had dreamed her adult life would be like. Emma is the girl she never had, the girl that she aborted. As the film ends Diana is asked once again if she is a survivor and she replies no with a smile, with a sense of relief that she did the right thing by dying and having her friend live her life.
reported that 24% of critics had given the film positive reviews, based on 35 reviews — with the consensus being the film is "Despite earnest performances, Life Before Her Eyes is a confusing, painfully overwrought melodrama
." Metacritic
reported the film had an average score of 32 out of 100, based on 15 reviews.
on April 18, 2008, in the United States
and grossed $20,220 in eight theaters its opening weekend, averaging $2,527 per theater. As of Jun 27–29, 2008, it had a domestic total gross of $303,439, and a production budget of $13 million.
Vadim Perelman
Vadim Perelman is a Ukrainian-American film director. Perelman made his feature film directorial debut in 2003 with House of Sand and Fog, following a successful career as a commercial director. The film, nominated for three Academy Awards, also marks his first screenplay credit...
. The screenplay was adapted by Emil Stern from the Laura Kasischke
Laura Kasischke
Laura Kasischke is an American fiction writer and American poet with poetry awards and multiple well reviewed works of fiction. Her work has received the Juniper Prize, the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, the Pushcart Prize, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Award for...
novel of the same name. The film stars Uma Thurman
Uma Thurman
Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Among her best-known roles are those in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill...
and Evan Rachel Wood
Evan Rachel Wood
Evan Rachel Wood is an American actress and singer. She began her acting career in the late 1990s, appearing in several television series, including American Gothic and Once and Again...
. It was released on April 18, 2008, and revolves around a survivor's guilt from a Columbine
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
-like event that occurred 15 years previously, which causes her present-day idyllic life to fall apart.
Plot
Imaginative, impetuous, and wild Diana McFee (Evan Rachel WoodEvan Rachel Wood
Evan Rachel Wood is an American actress and singer. She began her acting career in the late 1990s, appearing in several television series, including American Gothic and Once and Again...
) 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
Eva Amurri
Eva Maria Livia Amurri is an American actress.- Early life :Amurri was born in New York City, New York, to Italian director Franco Amurri and American actress Susan Sarandon. Her grandfather was television writer Antonio Amurri, and her aunt is television writer Valentina 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
Uma Thurman
Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Among her best-known roles are those in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill...
). 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 complain 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.
The day of the 15th anniversary of the shooting, a memorial is held at the school. Diana drives in front of the school several times until she finally decides to stop and bring in some flowers. As she enters the school she’s asked whether she’s one of the survivors. She doesn’t answer and simply walks inside, first leaving flowers on some desks and then moving on to the rest rooms where one of the shootings took place. At that moment she gets a call from Emma’s school; Emma is missing. Diana is told that a pink piece of clothing has been found in the woods. She drives there and walks through the woods, shouting out her daughter's name. Emma appears before Diana’s eyes for a moment but then vanishes almost as soon as she has appeared.
We’re taken back to the rest rooms in the school where Diana left the flowers. This is the place where she and Maureen were forced to decide which of them should survive. Maureen had offered herself first, but the shooter, Michael Patrick (John Magaro
John Magaro
John Robert Magaro is an American film, television and stage actor. He will star alongside James Gandolfini in Twylight Zones —the upcoming feature film debut of David Chase, creator of The Sopranos.-Life and career:...
), asks Diana why it shouldn't be her; she acquiesces and asks to be killed. She is then shot and dies. All that we’ve seen earlier in the film is what Diana had dreamed her adult life would be like. Emma is the girl she never had, the girl that she aborted. As the film ends Diana is asked once again if she is a survivor and she replies no with a smile, with a sense of relief that she did the right thing by dying and having her friend live her life.
Cast
- Uma ThurmanUma ThurmanUma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Among her best-known roles are those in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill...
as Diana McFee - Evan Rachel WoodEvan Rachel WoodEvan Rachel Wood is an American actress and singer. She began her acting career in the late 1990s, appearing in several television series, including American Gothic and Once and Again...
as young Diana McFee - Brett CullenBrett CullenPeter Brett Cullen is an American actor who has appeared in numerous motion pictures and television programs. Early in 2007, he was cast as the role of an estranged father to one of the American football players, Tim Riggins , in the NBC drama series Friday Night Lights.Cullen was born in Houston,...
as Paul McFee - Gabrielle Brennan as Emma McFee
- Adam Chanler-BeratAdam Chanler-BeratAdam Brian Chanler-Berat is an American theater performer and film actor. He was born in West Nyack, Rockland County, in New York where he attended Clarkstown High School South. He then attended Marymount Manhattan College.- Theater:...
as Ryan Haswhip - Eva AmurriEva AmurriEva Maria Livia Amurri is an American actress.- Early life :Amurri was born in New York City, New York, to Italian director Franco Amurri and American actress Susan Sarandon. Her grandfather was television writer Antonio Amurri, and her aunt is television writer Valentina Amurri...
as Maureen - Oscar IsaacOscar Isaac-Personal life:Isaac was born in Guatemala to a Guatemalan mother, Maria Estrada Nicolle, and a Cuban pulmonologist father, Oscar Gonzalo Hernandez. He was raised in Miami, Florida. While in Miami, he played lead guitar and sang vocals for his band "The Blinking Underdogs"...
as Marcus - Maggie Lacey as Amanda
- Nathalie Paulding as young Amanda
- Jewel Donohue as Mother
- Tanner Max CohenTanner Cohen-Career:In 2006, Cohen appeared as Tad Becker in 5 episodes of the American soap opera As The World Turns. He appeared along side Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood in the 2007 thriller The Life Before Her Eyes...
as Nate Witt - Lynn CohenLynn CohenLynn Cohen is an American actress. She is probably best known for playing Magda in the HBO series Sex and the City and the 2008 film of the same name. She has also played Judge Elizabeth Mizener several times on Law & Order, and has appeared in the movies Munich, Vanya on 42nd Street, Synecdoche,...
as Sister Beatrice - John MagaroJohn MagaroJohn Robert Magaro is an American film, television and stage actor. He will star alongside James Gandolfini in Twylight Zones —the upcoming feature film debut of David Chase, creator of The Sopranos.-Life and career:...
as Michael Patrick - Molly PriceMolly Price-Personal life:Price was born in North Plainfield, New Jersey, and graduated from North Plainfield High School in 1984.She is a graduate of Rutgers University. She is married to a New York City Fire Department firefighter Derek Kelly...
as Diana's mother - Isabel KeatingIsabel Keating-Biography:Keating is widely acclaimed for her portrayal of Judy Garland in the 2003 Broadway theatre production of The Boy From Oz, starring opposite Hugh Jackman, for which she received a Tony Award nomination and for which she won the Drama Desk Award and the Theatre World Award...
as Maureen's mother - Mike Slater as young Tom
Reception
The Life Before Her Eyes received a generally negative response; as of August 2011, Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 24% of critics had given the film positive reviews, based on 35 reviews — with the consensus being the film is "Despite earnest performances, Life Before Her Eyes is a confusing, painfully overwrought melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
." Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
reported the film had an average score of 32 out of 100, based on 15 reviews.
Box office
The film opened in limited releaseLimited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
on April 18, 2008, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and grossed $20,220 in eight theaters its opening weekend, averaging $2,527 per theater. As of Jun 27–29, 2008, it had a domestic total gross of $303,439, and a production budget of $13 million.