Review of The Life Before Her Eyes (2007) by Mel M — 21 Sep 2009

Goddamn.

I fully believe that, in all my exhaustive years of movie watching, I have never come across a film so chock-full of symbolism. Before any word on the many, many things that went wrong with The Life Before Here Eyes, it has to be said that the over-reliance on any metaphoric image, line of dialogue or peculiarity of the human body eventually gets so deadening, it kind of has to be seen to be believed. Watching this film alone, I still couldn't help but speak out to nobody ''goddamn''.

It is truly, truly a shame. Considering the strength of the source material, the potential take on either aborted dreams, the weight of life or grief (or... all three at once?) was nothing short of fascinating on its own. In some parts during the middle act, we kind of seize some of the subject matter's aspects, often when director Vadim Perelman is not stuffing our faces with loud, meaningful imagery, and letting his stage direction breathe on its own. While I'm into the positive, I cannot, too, skip the fine work of three very good lead actresses. Evan Rachel Wood plays a character that she has kind of already explored before, but is nonetheless very capable of injecting life into a difficult role. Eva Amurri is a perfect contrast, more often than not playing the subtle nuances of a very important part. Their chemistry also makes their on-screen couple much more engaging than the picture than surrounds it. As for Thurman, she does her best in playing a character whose trauma is anything but cinematic. Replacing words that sustained her inconsolable melancholy with contrived situations and constant flashbacks sadly contributes to a largely miswritten part.

But, although it's been said countless times already, it seems like it still has not been said enough : some literary devices, when translated to the big screen, just don't fucking work.

And that is exactly what happens in Perelman's second effort. It doesn't fucking work. Without revealing the film's pivotal moment and most 'significant' scene, I still have to mention that having your audience getting invested into a certain concept, and then yanking the rug directly under their feet is an extremely risky trick to pull in movies-- one that was masterfully handled in Kasischke's haunting novel. The move could easily be compared to pulling out a tablecloth from under a couple of plates.

Needless to say, by the end of The Life Before Here, more than a few plates crash on the floor. The epilogue that was in the book surely couldn't be translated onscreen, but by god, shouldn't they have tried something a little bit less cloying? Anyway, it's only worth seeing if you've read Laura Kasischke's novel and you want to see a perfect textbook of misguided adaptation ideas.