Director Vadim Perelman on 'The Life Before Her Eyes'

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Spoiler alert! Director Vadim Perelman wants you to know the twist ending of his drama "The Life Before Her Eyes" before you see the film.Read no further unless you're willing to play into Perelman's bet that you'll enjoy the movie more if you know the ending in advance.The story follows a woman in her 30s played by Uma Thurman, traumatized by a high-school shooting.In the flashback scenes, her character is played by Evan Rachel Wood, who, along with her friend, is confronted by the killer in the school bathroom.Perelman says most of the film takes place in the girl's mind as she lies dying in the bathroom."What's strange about this film is unless they know the twist, I don't think they enjoy the movie," Perelman said in a recent telephone interview."The reviews that are trickling in say the metaphors are too heavy-handed. But by the time you know what the twist is, you're kind of past it," he said, explaining that every metaphor supports the concept that she's imagining her future life. "I've come to the conclusion that it's better to know and kind of follow along. I can't expect people to see it twice."Perelman is diplomatic and passionate in the interview, defending the virtues of a film he loves while recognizing and addressing complaints about it."I'm so influenced in reading reviews, and I think that's a mistake on my part," Perelman said. "The thinking comes to the conclusion that (I use) heavy-handed metaphors, all this imagery, why so much water? Well, she lies there dying in the water!"For me, all those things are I'm afraid what happens when critics and audiences watch all the way through and kind of turn off. It's like a poem. The repetition motif. It keeps going over and over again, and when the twist comes and twists the perception, it seems heavy-handed."Perelman says he's drawn to strong metaphors because they were persistent in the Russian films he grew up admiring. Born in 1963 in the former Soviet Union, Perelman and his mother moved to Canada when Perelman was 16.After dropping out of both high school and film school, Perelman made a name for himself directing commercials. Wanting to make something deep and meaningful for his film debut, he turned down big-budget movies such as "Gone in 60 Seconds" and "Charlie's Angels."He co-wrote and directed "House of Sand and Fog" (2003), which snagged three Oscar nominations and made Perelman a filmmaker to watch.Steven Spielberg chose him to direct an adaptation of the Stephen King-Peter Straub novel "The Talisman," but Perelman dropped out in 2004 due to what he calls a "mutual understanding" between him and the studio."The Life Before Her Eyes," an adaptation of the Laura Kasischke novel, is his return to the game. Initially titled "In Bloom," the film was poised for an Oscar run in 2007 before a disappointing showing at the Toronto International Film Festival. The title was changed to match the novel's, and the film re-cut to clarify the narrative."The big change happened in the scene she lets go of (her friend's) hand, and we took it further," he explained.Perelman said he had tried writing the screenplay but was confounded by how non-linear the story was, so he turned those duties over to Emil Stern.Perelman's next project, writing Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" along with "Braveheart" writer Randall Wallace, was also a challenge. Perelman says he's still waiting for the studio to approve the script, but that everything was still on track for a 2009 release, barring a strike by actors. That film is expected to star Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt."It was difficult in a sense," Perelman said. "It's such a huge novel to cut down, to make it visual, flesh out the characters and so on. What parts to leave in or leave out. It was easier in a sense because it has a classical novel structure, but 'The Life Before Her Eyes' was very much a poem and essentially very evocative."(Phil Villarreal is the author of the novel "Stormin' Mormon" (Publish America, $19.95). Contact him at pvillarreal(at)azstarnet.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)