The Life Before This (1999)Several innocent bystanders are injured or killed when two robbers, fleeing from the police, run into the neighborhood cafe. Director:Jerry CiccorittiWriter:Semi Chellas |
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The Life Before This (1999)Several innocent bystanders are injured or killed when two robbers, fleeing from the police, run into the neighborhood cafe. Director:Jerry CiccorittiWriter:Semi Chellas |
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| Watch Trailer 0Share... |
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Catherine O'Hara | ... |
Sheena
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| Joe Pantoliano | ... |
Jake Maclean
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| Sarah Polley | ... |
Connie
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| Stephen Rea | ... |
Brian
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Bernard Behrens | ... |
Monsieur Farrin
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| Martha Burns | ... |
Gwen Maclean
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Fab Filippo | ... |
Michael
(as Fabrizio Filippo)
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| Emily Hampshire | ... |
Margaret
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| David Hewlett | ... |
Nick
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| Leslie Hope | ... |
Alice
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| Joel S. Keller | ... |
Kevin
(as Joel Keller)
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| Dan Lett | ... |
Sam
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| Carl Marotte | ... |
Stan
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| Alison Pill | ... |
Jessica
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| Callum Keith Rennie | ... |
Martin Maclean
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In Toronto, after a holdup goes awry, two gunmen kill or wound several people at a cafe. A flashback takes us through the victims' day. Sheena, a talkative woman approaching middle age, vacillates about showing up for a blind date. Jake, an attorney who has "borrowed" from a client's trust fund, faces ruin when she dies. Maggie, the ugly-duckling daughter of a TV star, gets an audition on her own and may be late for her shift at the cafe. A laconic bug exterminator, grieving for his dead daughter, goes through a day of pain and memory. Two prepubescent girls set up an elderly teacher on a charge of sexual impropriety. Can any make decisions that change the shooting outcome? Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
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.