Review: "The Life Before Her Eyes"

I was hoping for something better with his latest film, The Life Before Her Eyes, but alas, it was not to be. Like House of Sand and Fog before it, Life Before Her Eyes wallows in its sorrows like a house guest brought over for a nice weekend retreat and won't stop talking about how their wife just left them. I have no problem with sad movies, or movies that have a downbeat ending, in fact I generally like them. There is nothing I enjoy more than watching a film that has some kind of deep emotional effect on me. But Perelman's films treat the audience like emotional children, laying on in such broad heavy handed strokes, as if he's afraid the audience won't understand the gravity of the situations unless he beats us over the head with a sledgehammer.

But the stories never really go anywhere, and by the time we get to the end, the movie throws in a gimmicky twist that throws everything off and makes it all even more of a waste so that the more you think about it, the less sense it makes. Some critics have pointed out that it would make a better literary device, which is probably true. But here it feels manipulative and contrived, taking an eye-rolling M. Night Shyamalan "gotcha" path that is neither emotionally honest or satisfying.

But without a Ben Kingsley to come along and save the movie, The Life Before Her Eyes falls flat under the weight of its own self importance. It is a dour, downbeat affair, where characters spend a lot of time being depressed emotional train wrecks for, ultimately, no good reason. It takes us on a useless journey that goes nowhere, emotionally or narrative-wise, using ridiculous, new-agey self-help dialogue to try and add depth, but it doesn't work. It's just another "Debbie Downer" who can't seem to give a reason as to why it's so depressed.
GRADE - ** (out of four)
THE LIFE BEFORE HER EYES; Directed by Vadim Perelman; Stars Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood, Sherman Alpert, Eva Amurri, Gabrielle Brennan; Rated R for violent and disturbing content, language and brief drug use
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