The Life Before This (2000)

***SPOILERS*** We see right from the start a number of people from different walks of life casually entering a trendy Toronto coffee shop for a drink or bite to eat. A car outside being chased by a police cruiser crashes into a parked van and the two men inside run into the café, and what looks like some kind of an altercation on their part, guns are pulled out. All of a sudden all hell breaks lose and what seems like about a dozen persons in the coffee shop end up massacred in the crossfire.As you try to get your bearings at what you just saw we then see what seems like the morning 12 hours back in time as were slowly introduced to the very people who we've just seen being shot down. The movie then plays itself out for the next hour or so where were again brought back, or forward, in time to the same café. To have a replay of the shootout but with some major changes in those who are to be in it, and who's going to end up being shot. And most importantly the personal lives of the people both in and out of the café giving them all an emotional connection or tie-in with each other as well as us watching the film. We see in a number of unrelated scenes about the stories behind the people that are in that café and how them being there will change, or end, their lives forever.There's the embezzling fund and money managing attorney Jack Maclean who had played with one of his clients, the late Mrs. Garrison, money and lost it in a number of failed real-estate ventures. And now has to face the music, and be disbarred or even worse, if he doesn't come up with the $200,000.00 he took from her by the end of the week. There's the story of the sad-sack and distort pest exterminator Brian who still hasn't gotten over the tragic death of his young daughter. And it's causing him to slowly withdraw from those he has any professional as well as social contact with. There's the sweet and musically talented young student Jessica who's conned and talked into by her conniving friend Phoebe to blackmail her French professor the honorable Monsieur Farrin by concocting a false and spurious charge against him in that he looked up her skirt and even attempted to make a grab at her. This is all done not to get Prof. Farrin to give her a passing grade, Jessica in fact has the best grades in the class, but to pass Phoebe who has a very poor academic record. As well as her being on the verge of being expelled for failing the very important schools French exam. There's the middle-age and never married seamstress Sheena who's nervous about seeing a blind date that she's to meet that evening outside the café because of her previous experiences with men that she dated. Sheena's last few dates ended up with men who are more interested in themselves then with her. There's also the young teenage Judy Garland look-alike Margaret who works at the café as a cashier and is at the same time trying to break into the theater whom her actress mom is one of it's bright and shining lights. And there's Margaret's friend Connie who also works behind the counter and is having troubles with her boyfriend Justin over her not spending more time with him. All these people together with the fugitive gambling den robbers Nick Kevin and their wheel-woman Nick's girlfriend Alice lives intersect at the café and are to be, in the first as well as second scenario of the event, linked to each other. Either for better or for worse but most of all for good.

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'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 agree with a previous reviewer in saying that this film had good potential. And in some spots, it comes through on this promise. Unfortunately, when all is said and done, this film does feel a bit incomplete with some things left unexplained.On the plus side, I like how it shows that life can change very drastically with just one seemingly irrelevant incident or event. However, I felt that there were other ironies that were intended or even implied, but the film failed to get them across. If these ironies were explained, and all of the stories connected in more than just the beginning and the ending, this would have been a much better film and I believe it would have fulfilled its potential.I must say, despite its flaws, I liked it. But I could've liked it better...