MovieChat Forums > The Life Before Her Eyes (2008) Discussion > Don't look anything alike

Don't look anything alike

posted 14 years ago by kphilpttop
13 replies | jump to latest

I wish the casting of movies who have different age versions of characters would at least have the characters look similar to each other. Uma Thurman looks nothing like Evan Rachel Woods, It disturbs the seamless transition of the stages to me. The Teen version of the character is to developed in which they are practically physically an adult and don't usually look to different from their 30 something stage, I guess that's about her age to be be using a totaly different looking characters all together. Just not realistically consistent.

[–] hubcap18 14 years ago

SPOILER BELOW

I was thinking in this case realism as far as what she'll look like when she's grown up is less important. I say this because her having grown up didn't actually happen. What we see is just what she thinks she'll look like as an adult. She thinks when she reaches her thirties, she'll look like Uma Thurman, but she dies before we can find out. It's not real in the context of the film, so it don't think it matters that much.

Being inconsistent is better than being consistently bad.

[–] PussyCrusher_Principal 14 years ago

well said, Hubcap, and to take it a tiny step further, even if the future scenes had been flash forwards to reality instead of fantasy, and the casting director had been faced with a choice of whether or not to cast someone closer, physically, to either the past or future Dianas, IMHO, it'd have been more important that they'd have gotten 2 excellent actresses to play both roles...like they did in the movie that exists...

[–] kphilpttop 14 years ago

It still doesn't make any logical sense to even think of yourself in a different life path as looking like a totally different person. It makes no consequently sense to do so, Peoples appearance's doesn't change with theories of choices and outcomes, unless less your theorizing what you'd would look like if you was conceived by different parents, but this is not a logical hypotosis here. So why ask people to suspend their imaginations of rational for the story sake. I think the full roundness of a movie everything has to be consistent and plot interesting.

[–] Murgatroid 14 years ago

Spoiler Alert

Meh. IMO, I think they all look similar enough for it not to really be an issue. I think the story is powerful enough to propel viewers readily into the notion that they are the same person.

In a purgatorial sense it would be entirely logical for Diana to review her life - what it was and what it could have been. And let's not forget the strong Catholic symbolism throughout the film. If viewed a second time, watch closely for scenes that contain photographs. I recall seeing one of her mother seated next to her daughter. But her mother looks younger. So we really are brought deeper into Diana's purgatorial walk - full circle in fact. Diana reflects on her life as a teen, then as if she were an adult, then when she was a child and finally as her own mother until she recognizes the choice she made in that bathroom.

And if you doubt the incorporation of the mother into the mix, review the scene when her mother "knows" after the gunshots ring out, that it was her daughter who just died in there. Diana, in divine empathy feels her own mothers devastating grief. It was a difficult scene to watch, and one can presume a difficult scene for the writer/director/actors to put across. Another scene is during the time Diana/Uma gets called in to talk with the nun about her "spirited daughter". Uma takes her to get icecream and the daughter mocks her. Uma says "wipe that smirk off your face" which parrots what Diana's own mother said to her.

So we have Diana, as child, as teen, as mother, and as one who empathizes enough with her own mother's plight enough to be in her shoes. Before our eyes Diana as a flawed and all too human character is redeemed because she has forgiven herself...

[–] kcolli11 14 years ago

Great points! I noticed these mother/daughter parallels as well. I thought the scene where the mother knows it's Diana who was just shot was the most powerful scene of the film. I was in tears.

Call me Katie. ;-)

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] denise1234 14 years ago

I agree with both opinions.

I think hubcap18 has a good, concise posting that helps to explain the difference in looks between the 2 actresses, playing the same character but at different times.

However, I was a bit distracted anyway by the obvious differences in their looks.

In any event, I liked this movie.

"I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than..a rude remark or a vulgar action" Blanche DuBois

[–] MystMoonstruck 14 years ago

I know many people who looked very little like their teen selves by the time they were in their late 20s/early 30s. My sister's stepson would be unrecognizable to anyone who knew him in his late teens; he looks drastically different, even to haircolor (a natural change) and a much-larger nose. I've encountered people I went to high school with whom I definitely did not recognize though my auburn hair tends to be a giveaway; I always hear that I've changed very little, but I can't say the same for many of them. I could accept the two women playing a single role.

Check out Wood's pictures side by side, and you will see that her appearance has changed a great deal, as has Uma Thurman, Scarlett Johansson and others.

~~MystMoonstruck~~

[–] seishell7 14 years ago

I really enjoyed this movie. Infact, I watched it last night and I am still thinking about it this morning. I know that a lot of people are hung up on the fact that the 2 women don't look much alike. Honestly, it didn't bother me at all. I thought they resembled each other enough to be believable. But for people that it bothers what about this scenerio and I apologize if it's already been said but what if Uma Thurman was a teacher of Evan Rachel Wood who she looked up to and wanted to be like? Or maybe she was a neigborhood Mother or anyone for that matter that Evan Rachel Wood thought was attractive and so as her adult self she used that woman as her own persona? I mean remember as an adult, Uma Thurman (Diana) was a teacher and she had one female student who she saw potential in and it bothered her that the girls attitude was so much like her own "Life's too Short" boy that was the truth! Anyway, for what it's worth.

Thanks,
Michelle

[–] aazfash 13 years ago

I actually saw this movie a while back and afterwards watching it (like most of the films i get inspired by) i am looking here at the imdb message board and Michelle you made me write a reply to you (It's honestly the first ever reply i am writing in the history lolzzz). whatever you wrote about the persona thingie is absolutely awesome but it also raised one point in my mind which i would like to share (Thanks to only you)...
Do you remember at the very ending when Uma stands inside the forest in front of the weeping Emma, she recalls that she saw Diana (Teen) having ice cream with her professor husband? Now here is the explanation, I guess Uma was in fact the original wife of the professor and in that scene she actually saw the two of them across the road. Somehow Teen Diana gets a glimpse of her (like in the flashback) and maybe that's where she has brought the character of Uma into her mind as her future look. Because you remember the scene where Uma was sobbing against the wall after getting home from the hospital after getting involved in the accident, it was actually Teen Diana fantasizing that what might has happened in the house of the professor because of her. In the last scene of the film Teen Diana tells Maureen about dating the Professor too if you remember.
In my point of view the film makes you confused for a little while before you either starts to pull it off from your mind by naming it unsatisfying or unoriginal but then there are people like me who actually would like to spend some time with the plot and discovering points hidden within.
Since i am a director and actor too so i know that there are certain things in the whole plot which are left for the public to decide or give their own opinions about them. I believe that in Hollywood production teams spend more time in filling all sort of glitches before investing millions of dollars and before going on set so little things and points like these are way too obvious for even normal public so you must know that there must be something above the line otherwise they could have worked on it themselves...
Many thanks and once again Michelle i guess you wrote the best ever comment in the entire message board for this film... :)

[–] Betty-Spaghetti 14 years ago

A lot of grown up versions look nothing like the ones playing their younger counterparts, want to know why??

BECAUSE THEY ARE DIFFERENT PEOPLE. Until time machines get invented, two completely different people have to play the same role. Every time this is needed in a movie, Hollywood can't be expected to have a global search for the one person who might just be out there looking like a 15 years younger Uma Thurman and, oh yeah, is a good actress as well.

[–] denise1234 14 years ago

mandyowens007^

Funny :)

And, you are so right. They ARE different people and filmmakers can only do so much.

Some movies have done it better than others (i.e., finding two actors to play the same person but at different ages).

However, the two different actresses picked for this movie and their same/different looks did not affect my overall enjoyment of this film, one way or the other, except for a minor distraction.

I DO wish that a time machine WILL be invented some day, though!

Regards, denise1234 :)

"I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than..a rude remark or a vulgar action" Blanche DuBois

[–] chort 13 years ago

I agree with you kphilpttop. The anorexic, flat chested teen would never grow into a full figured woman. The movie was miscast.
BTW, many on the board are calling these two *actors*.
No, they are just typical hollywood eye candy.

Gott ist tot.
Nietzsche