The Life Before This

Through quirky characters and intelligent Altman like set pieces, the film maker explores themes of destiny and fate in a sensitive and engrossing film. The ending makes us all reflect on our own life and on how the smallest actions can have the most dramatic impact on the way our things turns out.

Despite the film starting at the end, the final outcome is completely unpredictable and questions the notion that our future is preordained.

Ultimately this low key film tackles well worn themes with more impact than more publicised films such as Sliding Doors.

I've just read a few of the comments on this film, and I can't believe how much people hated it. I adored it. I admit that I was bored at first, but then I suddenly found myself deep in it, and enthralled by the characters. I think that's why people didn't like it. If you're looking for a chronological narrative with closure, this isn't for you. But if you're looking for an in-depth and personal look into people's lives, and how lonely, confused, and scared they can be, this is it.

Sarah Polley is incredible as always. She's been one of my favorites for years. And Catherine O'Hara made me remember how much I adore her. She's absolutely wonderful. I could go on... Stephen Rea, Joe Pantoliano, everyone here has a chance to shine, and they do. They show you how people can hurt.

i caught this movie on HBO and i thought it was awesome. maybe it was because i had read a book with no plot, just showed peoples lives in NYC and how they connect, and it was an amazing book. i thought this movie was remarkable - maybe because i didn't need the sense of closure, seeing how everyone's lives ran together into the coffee shop shooting at the end was enough for me. i liked it.

The Life Before This is one of those films most producers would be scared of making and most studios would have no idea how to market, which is a shame. Hollywood needs more movies like this. It is by no means a happy-go-lucky, feel-good, quickly forgotten movie like most crap put out today. It actually makes you think(God forbid!) about the importance of seemingly trivial choices that we make everyday and how much ability we have to unknowingly affect the people around us. Sarah Polley is absolutely amazing in this film, which is pretty par for the course with her, but the other actors are all strong enough to not be overshadowed. Credit should go to the director for switching between and connecting multiple story lines with ease and still making you feel like a really know all of the characters. If you're a fan of big budget, action-laden blockbusters or easy to digest fluff, stay away!!! LBT is an intelligent, eloquent, understated, and disturbing(but not unnecessarily or frivolously) film with all the subtlety and nuance of a Sofia Coppola pic. The acting is superb, the script is superb, the cinematograhpy is superb, everything simply works. This movie will leave you questioning, depressed, disturbed, and moved, and yet despite all this, there is something oddly life affirming about it. Rent it and see for yourself.

I have only seen this movie once, and I was immediately drawn in. I think it was a well told story, lots of great actors doing what they do best and yet it is no where to be found.

If you do come across it, ever, and you like movies about lives, give it a chance.