The Life Before Her Eyes is a tormented tale that examines the traumatic aftereffects of an act of violence on the lives of others even decades later.
But let's just say right off that fully identifying the genre on display here or listing other films it resembles would be a disservice, providing more information than anyone should have entering this complex drama.
As the fifteen-year anniversary of a Columbine-like tragedy approaches, a seemingly contented thirtysomething wife and mother named Diana, the haunted central character played by Uma Thurman, teaches art at the suburban Connecticut high school where the massacre took place -- which she attended.
Through a series of flashbacks, with Evan Rachel Wood (right) playing a younger version of Diana as a rebellious teenager, we see why she is to some degree emotionally paralyzed. Regret, anxiety, and a strong measure of survivor guilt muddy the waters of her seemingly idyllic life.
It was on that fateful day at the school a decade and a half ago that a troubled student was responsible for the deaths of a number of students and faculty members. And Diana still agonizes over the fact that he told her of his intentions the day before it happened, but she never mentioned it to anyone because she assumed he was joking.
One of his confrontations was with hedonistic Diana and her spiritual best friend, played by Eva Amurri, whom he tormented and threatened with a rifle. He demanded that the two friends make an impossible choice in a disturbing, suspenseful, even horrifying sequence in the girls' restroom that we return to so many times as the film doubles back on itself, we begin to suspect that the film is being vaguely exploitative.
It isn't, not really, but we can't know that yet.
Director Vadim Perelman, who debuted with 2003's impressively-acted drama House of Sand and Fog, gets three strong, engaging, lived-in performances from Thurman, Wood, and Amurri (the real-life daughter of actress Susan Sarandon) that give the film a character-driven flavor it might not ordinarily have.
Perelman works from an adaptation by screenwriter Emil Stern of the Laura Kasischke novel In Bloom. The script weaves past and present together in a dream-like (that is, nightmare-like) way that sacrifices a degree of emotional involvement in the name of cerebral contemplation.
But it also builds to a major revelation at the very end of the film. And it's not until that point that judgments can be made about many of the elements that have preceded it.
So as to avoid dipping any toes in the spoiler pool, what that is will certainly not be disclosed or even discussed here. But it will end up being the major determinant in your ultimate feelings and opinion of this demanding and offbeat film.
Suffice to say that it will tie everything together for some viewers, seem gimmicky enough to infuriate others, and make still others want, maybe even need, to go back and watch it again in search of the many clues sprinkled throughout the film and overlooked the first time through.
As for us, we'll translate our between-extremes response into 2½ stars out of 4 for the tricky and provocative The Life Before Her Eyes. The movie before our eyes is a compellingly shot and acted psychological melodrama that takes a chancy, delayed-gratification approach to the material that almost pays off.
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Through a series of flashbacks, with Evan Rachel Wood (right) playing a younger version of Diana as a rebellious teenager, we see why she is to some degree emotionally paralyzed. Regret, anxiety, and a strong measure of survivor guilt muddy the waters of her seemingly idyllic life.
