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The Life Before Her Eyes (15)
- Consumer Advice: Contains strong language and violence
- Run time: 1 hour 29 mins
- Genre: Drama
- Release date: 27th March 2009
- Starring: Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood
- Directed by: Vladim Perelman
- Official Website: www.lifebeforehereyes.com
- Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Plot Synopsis
The sleepy springtime Connecticut suburb of Briar Hill is rocked when a gun-toting student cuts down fifteen of his classmates and teachers before cornering two high school seniors in the girl’s bathroom: the imaginative and wild Diana (Evan Rachel Wood) and her more staid and conservative friend, Maureen (Eva Amurri).
Fifteen years later, Diana (Uma Thurman) has made a picture perfect for life for herself. Her husband Paul, whom she met in high school, is a professor at the local liberal arts college. Her daughter Emma is on the cusp of young adulthood and is starting to show signs that she’s inherited Diana’s wild streak.
It was Diana’s wild streak that brought Diana and Maureen together in the first place: Diana was sneaking a joint in the girl’s locker room when Maureen warned her of an approaching teacher. The two embark on a series of typically miniature teen-aged adventures: cutting class, fantasizing about boys, sneaking into neighbors’ pools. But their relationship frays when Diana’s increasingly erratic behavior begins to clash with Maureen’s devout beliefs.
The memory of their conflicting personalities torments the older Diana, especially as the 15-year anniversary of the school shooting approaches. Haunted by the unthinkable and indescribable events of that day, Diana finds her current life falling apart—her husband is increasingly absent, her daughter has taken to hiding from teachers, and her own grip on reality is starting to falter.
Meanwhile, the younger Diana begins to discover the redemptive power of her friendship with Maureen, even as the terrible specter of violence looms on the horizon.