The Life Before Her Eyes, the latest film by Vadim Perelman (House of Sand and Fog), opened this weekend in limited release. In part as a response to the negative reviews by a number of critics, Perelman said recently in an interview that he's decided that it's better for audiences to know the ending going in (I did confirm with Perelman that he actually said this, because I was rather surprised that he would). And while I understand Perelman's desire to counter the critical response to the film in this way, I decided to take a look at what the negative reviews actually say.

First, I'm going to largely ignore the reviews (good and bad) that came out of the Toronto International Film Festival last year, because the cut of the film in theaters now is different. So let's look at what critics have to say about the current cut. Let's look at one titled (ever so objectively) "Hollywood and the War on Women", by Prairie Miller over on News Blaze. Miller starts her "review" of the film with a five-paragraph rant that tries to tie films about the Iraq war into a perceived "war against women" in Hollywood, going so far as to make the accusation that this war is fueled, in part, by male directors and producers whose coffers are being drained by alimony and child support payments. Uh, what?

It's been five years since Vadim Perelman's critically acclaimed feature debut with House of Sand and Fog. Now the director is back with his newest film, The Life Before Her Eyes, starring Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood and Eva Amurri. The film is about Diana, whose life starts to crumble as the 15th anniversary of the school shooting she survived nears; it flashes back and forth between older Diana (Thurman) and the younger Diana (Wood) and her best friend Maureen (Amurri) in the weeks leading up to the tragic event. Cinematical sat down with Perelman and Amurri at AFI Dallas to talk about the film, which opens in limited release this weekend.

Cinematical: Eva, can you talk about the challenges of playing this role, which is much more of "nice girl" than you've played in your previous films?

Eva Amurri: The earlier roles I'd had just happened to be more bad girls. This is the first role I'd had where the role was basically all good, this very pure, selfless girl. What's funny is that Vadim really cast us against type – in real life, I'm much more the "bad" girl, while Evan is the serious "good" girl. I was a little worried about it, but I trusted Vadim, and he did a great job guiding us through it. It was an interesting exercise.

(Editor's note: This review originally ran during AFI Dallas. It's being rerun this weekend in conjunction with the film's release.)

I loved House of Sand and Fog, and I've been waiting five long years to see what director Vadim Perelman would come up with next. His latest effort, The Life Before Her Eyes, starring Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood and Eva Amurri, is a lovely, nuanced film packed with imagery, and bracketed by an intriguing storyline. The film revolves around Diana, played as a teenager by Wood and an adult by Thurman; the younger Diana was a survivor of a high school shooting, as as the 15-year anniversary of the tragic event nears, the older Diana begins to unravel.

Perelman is not a director who hand-feeds his audience easy answers. With House of Sand and Fog he made heavy use of its moody, gray and brown pallette to set a dark and unsettling mood. With The Life Before Her Eyes, he turns to brilliantly saturated hues of flowers and water to create a sublime tone that evokes what's going on with Diana. The perfect life with professor husband Paul (Brett Cullen) and daughter Emma (Gabrielle Brennan) that she's worked so hard to create is a fairy tale fantasy built on an unstable foundation of unresolved guilt, and we know from the first frames that, hard as she works to sustain it, it's as fragile as the petals of the flowers that embower her garden.

I loved House of Sand and Fog, and I've been waiting five long years to see what director Vadim Perelman would come up with next. His latest effort, The Life Before Her Eyes, starring Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood and Eva Amurri, is a lovely, nuanced film packed with imagery, and bracketed by an intriguing storyline. The film revolves around Diana, played as a teenager by Wood and an adult by Thurman; the younger Diana was a survivor of a high school shooting, as as the 15-year anniversary of the tragic event nears, the older Diana begins to unravel.

Perelman is not a director who hand-feeds his audience easy answers. With House of Sand and Fog he made heavy use of its moody, gray and brown pallette to set a dark and unsettling mood. With The Life Before Her Eyes, he turns to brilliantly saturated hues of flowers and water to create a sublime tone that evokes what's going on with Diana. The perfect life with professor husband Paul (Brett Cullen) and daughter Emma (Gabrielle Brennan) that she's worked so hard to create is a fairy tale fantasy built on an unstable foundation of unresolved guilt, and we know from the first frames that, hard as she works to sustain it, it's as fragile as the petals of the flowers that embower her garden.

I'm in Dallas for the second AFI Dallas Film Festival, and having a great time so far. The fest has worked through some of those first-year kinks and things seem to be sailing along smoothly, though I know there's probably lots of finagling going on behind the scenes that makes whatever glitches do come up invisible to most of us here. Shuttle service for passholders this year is making it much easier to navigate the fest quickly and efficiently between venues. The festival lounge is great this year -- the space is nicely decorated, there are always yummy snacks on hand, the drinks flow all night long, and Guitar Hero battles happen nightly.

I kicked things off here on Tuesday moderating a panel on women filmmakers for a private event held for a group of high-powered corporate women. Filmmakers SJ Main (Luck of the Draw) and Robin Bliley (Circus Rosaire) made my job super easy; both had many insights to share about being independent filmmakers and women working in the business, and the women (and their husbands) in attendance had many thought-provoking questions that kept the tone conversational and interesting.

We have a new set of stills for you from the upcoming film The Life Before Her Eyes, starring Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood. The film, directed by Vadim Perelman and based on the best-selling novel by Laura Kasischke, is a dramatic thriller about Diana (Thurman), a suburban wife and mother who begins to question her seemingly perfect life--and perhaps her sanity--on the fifteenth anniversary of a tragic high school shooting that took the life of her best friend.

The film flashes back-and-forth between the younger Diana (played by Wood) and her best friend Maureen (played by Eva Amurri, daughter of Susan Sarandon), and the older Diana, who is haunted by the increasingly strained relationship she had with Maureen as day of the school shooting approached. As older Diana's life begins to unravel and younger Diana gets closer and closer to the fatal day, a deeper mystery slowly unravels.

You can see more stills from the film in the gallery below. The film is set to open in limited release on April 18.

Above is the trailer for Vadim Perelman's upcoming film, The Life Before Her Eyes. For many, this movie should be a welcome respite from Uma Thurman's recent work (My Super Ex-Girlfriend), and a blast back to the more challenging and tasty fare that made her famous -- films like Dangerous Liaisons and Henry & June. Based on Laura Kasischke's novel, the film follows Thurman as the survivor of a high school shooting (something only vaguely hinted at in the trailer), whose life unravels 15 years later. Evan Rachel Wood (Across the Universe) plays her as a young woman, while Eva Amurri (Saved!) plays her best friend. I must say, it's so good to see Thurman in something meatier, and if this film is half as good as the trailer, this should be a must-see pick when the feature hits theaters this April.

Meanwhile, you can head through the jump to check out an official still from the film.*

*Edited to change picture

While Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst is already moving onto his second cinematic feature, a sports drama starring Ice Cube, many of us are still anxious to see what he made of his first, The Education of Charlie Banks. A few years ago, he was telling people he was a "real director" before he had even made the feature. Then, it sounded like the statement might have been more than pompous boasting -- beyond a cast headlined by the wonderful Jesse Eisenberg (Roger Dodger) and Eva Amurri (Saved!), Variety gave the film a solid review from Tribeca earlier this year. Now, finally, the film has been picked up for distribution.

The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Anchor Bay has picked up the North American theatrical and DVD rights to the debut, for release this spring. It's a coming-of-age drama starring Eisenberg as a high school student who sees a bully (Jason Ritter) severely beat two kids at a party. Years after telling the police and reneging his testimony, he enters college and the bully shows up at his school, becoming part of his circle. Of course, the kid wonders what the bully's motives are, and whether Ritter's character is there for revenge. Between curiosity over Durst's directorial chops, and this cast, I'll be there to check it out, but what about you? Will Durst's name make you run to the theater? Keep you from it? Or is his involvement irrelevant?

All of my rationale and mental faculties tell me that I shouldn't be into this, but I just can't help it. They say: "back away... Slowly!" But I'm not listening. Variety has just shared the cast list for the upcoming horror film, Animals. A scary movie, I must add, that is based on a novel by Craig Spector, that he adapted himself. Who? He hasn't had too much work in film (he has a big pulpy horror novel career), but his one feature is A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child. It's the installment that got me into the series since it was on weekend television all the time in the early 90's. It's also the movie that holds one of my favorite death scenes -- death by Freddy-bike.

So, he's written up this little screenplay for Highlander:Endgame* director Doug Aarniokoski to direct, and these are the people who will star in it: the guy who already has experience as an Animal Mark Blucas, Nicki Aycox (Jeepers Creepers II), Susan Sarandon's kid and Saved! scene stealer -- Eva Amurri, Andy Comeau (8 Heads in a Duffel Bag) and testicle-collector Naveen Andrews. The movie is about: "blue-collar man in a dying factory town whose life is jolted after becoming involved in a romantic triangle amid a spate of uncontrolled violence." How's that for specifics? Luckily, it comes from a book, so here is some more info -- it's a metaphorical werewolf story: "Syd was just another lonely working-class guy singing the steel-town blues. Then he met Nora. She's sensual, Erotic, Amoral. A creature of the night. And she's luring Syd across the line that few can cross -- and fewer survive: the line that separates man from beast." Oh, how terribly wonderful. I imagine that Blucas is Syd, and hopefully channeling more of the Prey for Rock & Roll mojo, than the lame Initiative lap-dog style, and I would hope that Amurri is Nora, but the role has probably gone to Aycox. Either way, they've ensnared me against my better judgment.

*Thanks to Victoria for catching that this isn't the director's first feature, as Variety reported. He directed Highlander: Endgame in 2000.

John Stockwell has found considerable success directing fairly dumb but undeniably entertaining movies about ...well, let's face it, about hot girls wearing next to nothing. But did you know he used to be an actor? This was news to me, but the guy's had some pretty major film roles, including a lead part in John Carpenter's Christine and "Cougar" in Top Gun. Stockwell's next directing project will be Middle of Nowhere, "a bittersweet romantic comedy about a clashing mother and daughter." Susan Sarandon will play the mother, Eva Amurri the daughter. Didn't Sarandon already make this movie once? It was called Anywhere but Here with Natalie Portman, and the premise seemed pretty tired back then. And Amurri was in that one too!

According to IMDB, Sarandon has no less than seven projects set for release this year, including Enchanted and the long-delayed Mr. Woodcock. She'll also play "Mom Racer" in next year's Speed Racer. Amurri is probably best known for her role in Saved!, and she'll next appear in The Education of Charlie Banks -- directed by (it pains me to write this) Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst! In Middle of Nowhere Amurri will play Grace, "a young woman whose irresponsible mother blows her college fund on her younger sister's beauty pageant campaign." Stockwell's directorial resume includes Crazy/Beautiful (the touching story of Kirsten Dunst's rack), Blue Crush (the powerful story of Kate Bosworth's rack), Into the Blue (the moving story of Jessica Alba's rack), and Turistas (the thought-provoking story of Melissa George's rack.)