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The Life before Her Eyes

Exploiting high school shootings
By PETER KEOUGH  |  April 23, 2008
1.0 1.0 Stars
THE_LIFE_BEFORE_inside
Uma Thurman

That Vadim Perelman’s adaptation of’ Laura Kasischke’s overripe novel rips off (spoiler alert!) Ambrose Bierce’s “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (and Robert Enrico’s splendid 1962 adaptation) doesn’t bug me as much as its exploitation of the Columbine High School and Virginia Tech massacres for its “pro-life” agenda. Bad girl Diana (Evan Rachel Wood) and her BFF, Born Again Maureen (Eva Amurri), are gabbing away in the girls’ room when that weird student pops in with an Uzi. Flash-forward to the 15th anniversary of this tragedy, where Diana has blossomed into Uma Thurman and has the perfect life with her perfect prof hubby and her perfect child. Or does she? Strange things are happening — she sees someone who looks like the biology teacher who got killed that day, and the Zombies’ “She’s Not There” keeps popping up. Maybe Diana shouldn’t have had that abortion just before the confrontation in the lavatory . . . Shame on all involved. 90 minutes | Kendall Square
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ARTICLES BY PETER KEOUGH
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    Nicolas Cage is at his best in Bad Lieutenant
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    John Hillcoat doesn't stray from Cormac McCarthy's Road For those who found the Coen Brothers' adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men too lighthearted, John Hillcoat's relentlessly faithful version of the author's post-apocalyptic Pulitzer-winning novel might hit the spot.
  •   INTERVIEW: NICOLAS CAGE  |  November 24, 2009
    "When people like to label any kind of performance as over the top, I suggest that if you were to go to the Guggenheim and look at a Francis Bacon, would you call that over the top?"
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    In The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Wes Anderson excelled at telling adult stories with childlike whimsy. Telling children’s stories with adult whimsy is another matter.
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    Only Hunter S. Thompson could come up with a line like that; no one else had his knack for the near-Biblical proverb. Few writers outside of Madison Avenue or the New Testament can sum up a zeitgeist so cannily in a phrase.

 See all articles by: PETER KEOUGH

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