Life Before Her Eyes, The

Director: Vadim Perelman
Year:2007
Cast: Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood
Rating: ***1/2 (out of ****)

Watching The Life Before Her Eyes was quite frustrating experience for me. It was like going through the dense jungle with a hope to find something but it just becomes darker and darker. If you feel the same, wait some more. It reminds me of some other movies with guilt ridden protagonists. Both of them I liked. Make it loved, but for different reasons. I wouldn't go into details here. First is David Lynch's Mulholland Drive and the other is Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter. These movies, including this very film are not only about Survivor's guilt but also about survivor's fear.

Nishikant Kamat, director of Mumbai Meri Jaan told in an interview that he came very close to the 1993 Mumbai blasts and could not speak to anyone for a long time ( Madhavan's character of a techie who experiences a close shave with the mayhem. He can't make up his mind to aboard the train after that). That fear of Kamat ultimately became the inspiration for Mumbai Meri Jaan.

The film starts with Diana (Evan Rachel Wood) in a college, taking her classes. A horrifying act of mass killing occurs in the same college (reminiscent of the recent Virginia University incident). Showed chillingly here. This trauma grips Diana. The shadow of that terrifying event never leaves her. Now she is happily married and having a daughter but her past still haunts her. The film's constant shifting between past and present became a bit cumbersome to watch. But I guess Vadim Perelman had to do that to make us feel the agony of Diana, taking the journey with her, as she remembers it all. If you have watched the film, you would agree.

Anyway, Diana here is a victim of the post traumatic disorder. Director Vadim Perelman choose to pay attention to the visuals (with all the close ups and all) to show the agony and fear. His visuals convey a lot more that words throughout the film. At times, I was irritated by Uma Thurman's acting. It seemed hollow (makes me wonder what someone of Naomi Campbell's might would have done). She is constantly insecure. About her daughter, her marriage, about herself. And then comes something I couldn't imagine. Anybody possibly couldn't have. The slow motion sequences spread throughout the movie suddenly start making sense. A study of a heart filled with fear and guilt. A dream lost, a life destroyed, a perplexing requiem, recurring trauma. The life before her eyes.
"Heart is the strongest muscle in the body", Diana's professor had said.....The weak had to die.....the fear moves on..... fear of losing the loved ones..... the fear that happiness may be just an illusion..... the guilt of being alive is eternal..... the guilt of being a weak heart..... feeling of being unworthy of any happiness.....Such people die every moment.....it's not a feeling, it's a phenomenon, it's eternal.

I've invested myself so much in this motion picture, I need some sleep. I need to lie down. It has been painful.

Heart is the strongest muscle in the body.