My Life Without Me (2003)

Did not work!! I think this company may repackage used DVDs

I thought the price on this was too good to be true, and IT WAS! It would not play. I got it to the Menu screen a couple of times, but it wouldn't go beyond that. My boyfriend looked at it and said it looked as if the company resold a used disc, bc it was scratched. I think they may try to refurbish faulty DVDs and repackage them. Either way, the bottom line: waste of money! February 8, 2008

Never Can Say Goodbye

How you feel about this film will depend in large part on your perception of Ann - played brilliantly by Sarah Polley who offers an unvarnished, raw, powerful performance. A young woman told she has only weeks to live keeps the information to herself and orchestrates the end of her life down to the last detail. Is she selfish and insensitive - or - facing the end, has she finally decided to live as she wishes? That she spends so much of this precious time preparing her near and dear for the inevitable departure - without them knowing it - should be factored in.

My Life Without Me is so threadbare and rough that it often feels like a documentary. Ann works nights on a cleaning crew and lives with her husband and two young daughters in a trailer. We spend a lot of time in that trailer with them and it gets downright claustrophobic, you can see the chips in the linoleum. That grit is characteristic of this movie, there is no slick artifice to relieve the pressure, and no maudlin goopiness to shamelessly milk the weepier moments. It's an emotional film, and you'd have to be a pretty cold fish for it not to get to you. But sadness and beauty are always hand in hand here, and the tears are always earned.

The picture benefits from an exceptional, and improbable cast. Amanda Plummer as Ann's friend, wonderful work by Deborah Harry as her embittered mother, and an uncredited cameo by the great Alfred Molina as her father. But the star turn is Mark Ruffalo as Don, Ann's secret love - the only man she's ever known besides her husband. Ruffalo has stunning screen presence, his vulnerability is brave, and his ability to interact amazing. There is a scene when he and Ann are first falling in love. Don's house is literally empty so they listen to a tape in his car. It is raining buckets. That scene is one of many where Ruffalo and Polley create film magic. (The original film score by Alfonso Vilallonga is inspired.)

My Life Without Me belongs to Isabel Coixet who directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Nanci Kincaid - Kincaid's book provided the foundation. It's one woman's story of dealing with an extraordinary situation, and Sarah Polley makes that woman credible and sympathetic, regardless of your take on what she does. It does make for interesting conversation - what would you do if you were in Ann's shoes? But that's your movie. What Ann chooses to do is her movie, and it is both deeply moving and exquisitely beautiful. December 9, 2007

Tender and Compassionate

This subtle and sensitive film begins with a poetic monologue. Ann (Sarah Polly) is standing in the pouring rain, her eyes closed, drenched to the bone, describing exactly what she feels...hearing the raindrops patter against the leaves, feeling the grass beneath her bare feet beginning to dampen...she then tells us that she has never been that type of person to sit and watch a sunset or lay on the beach observing the waves of the ocean for hours nor stand in the pouring rain. But life for Ann has changed and with it a new appreciation for life.

Married at 17 to a loving father and husband, Don (Scott Speedman) with two pretty daughters, at 23, Ann's life is her cleaning job at the local university, her family, living in a trailer in the back of her mother's (Deborah Harry) house and the simple banalities of surviving from day to day. One morning she collapses in her kitchen and later tests are done that determine she has tumours in her ovaries growing and accelerating towards her liver. The condition is untreatable thus she is told she has two to three months to live.

The utmost courage this young woman shows us once receiving her death sentence is laudable in the truest sense. Rather than run home and tell her family and friend's about her imminent death, she chooses to keep it to herself to spare them of the sorrow. After receiving the news, she sits in a coffee shop and makes a list of twenty things she would like to do before she departs. Under these dire circumstances, one would assume the list to include going to Europe, climbing Mount Everest or a road trip around the United States, however her items are simple actions like saying what she feels, seeing her father who she hasn't seen in ten years because he's in jail; getting a new hair style and her nails done. The most radical item on the list is to make love to another man because aside from her husband she has never had an encounter of this type thus she wants to know how it feels. Enter a handsome man (Mark Ruffalo) who has been watching Ann in the coffee shop making her list. There is no pre-meditated "seduction" from either of them which has been stated in all the blurbs for the story. There is chemistry and attraction which is followed up and consummated though this is not a "one-night-stand" situation because, unexpectedly, true love enters the picture.

Ann now proceeds to make a series of recorded tapes for her children to be listened to on their birthdays till their 18. She makes a tape for her mother, her loving husband and of course her lover.

This film is indeed modest lacking in any self consciousness, kind and compassionate.

How we behave when facing our death can reveal our true character, and in Ann's case, she has integrity and courage coupled with humility that was inspiring to watch.

My Life without Me is a wonderful film.



August 8, 2007

An Excellent and Riveting Drama - Not to be Missed

What would you do if you knew your time was almost up? Sarah Polley carries this film beautifully with a phenomenal performance as a young mother knocking on death's door. But she does not rollover gently into that good night. Instead, she takes action to make sure she lives life to the fullest while secretly preparing her family for the future without her. Do not miss this excellent and riveting drama. January 10, 2007

Extremely touching movie!

I bought this movie just because I really loved Isabel Coixet's
"Things I never told you" film. But "My life without me" blew me away cos it was so moving. I saw lots of movies about some people who are going to die cos of some illness, but i never experienced one who was THAT touching. Though i still can't understand why the lead character refused to tell anyone of her loved ones of her tumor, i couldn't help but cry during many scenes. And just like in "Things i never told you",there's a laundromat scene where two people get together ( but here it plays differently than in the Lili Taylor film ). And like always, is Isabel Coixet a master of great production design which is the i - point to this great movie. One of the best Dramas ever made!!! If you enjoyed this movie, please check out these other great (touching) films:

Things I never told you (by Isabel Coixet)

Paris,Texas (by Wim Wenders)

In a year with 13 moons (by R.W.Fassbinder)

Arizona dream (by Emir Kusturica) September 14, 2006

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