Writer-director Sandra Goldbacher's 2001 feature Me Without You... serves as further evidence for the kind of actress Williams was to become.

Full Review | Jan 11, 2021

Although the film deserves some points for trying to describe the intensity of best-friendship between girls, it fails to make them interesting people.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 20, 2002

Feels like a late-baby-boomer family album.

Full Review | Sep 13, 2002

Both illuminating and dispiriting.

Full Review | Sep 13, 2002

A well-made and often lovely depiction of the mysteries of friendship.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 30, 2002

You can't ignore the film's pungency as a cultural document and as a heartfelt testimony to the power struggles of best mates.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 23, 2002

Me Without You has a bracing truth that's refreshing after the phoniness of female-bonding pictures like Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 16, 2002

There is no substitute for on-screen chemistry, and when Friel pulls the strings that make Williams sink into melancholia, the reaction in Williams is as visceral as a gut punch.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 15, 2002

It is to Goldbacher's credit that the film, while hardly short on confrontation, never resorts to one of those melodramatic laundry-airings in which all resentments and betrayals can be traced back to a singular incident and healed with a hug.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 9, 2002

Holly and Marina may not always be good for each other, but together they tell us a great deal about people who need each other -- a group that ultimately includes all of us.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Aug 8, 2002

Goldbacher ... is most adept at visual storytelling, capturing intimate moments with breathtaking acuity.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 2, 2002

There are several problems with the development of the narrative. Most important is the unequal allocation of audience sympathy between Marina and Holly.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2002

A chick movie? Well, yes, but it's a whole lot cooler than that one with the Ya-Ya's in the title.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 18, 2002

Approval and ultimate happiness are weighted so clearly in Holly's favor that the game's rigging becomes tiresome. But Williams and Friel throw themselves wholeheartedly into emotional fits of competitive sisterhood.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jul 18, 2002

Dark and painfully truthful.

Full Review | Jul 15, 2002

Goldbacher gives us a sense of a real friendship, strained by the need of both women to mature, and embraces the emotional messiness of growing up.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 12, 2002

Flat, but with a revelatory performance by Michelle Williams.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 9, 2002

Psychologically savvy.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 5, 2002

The kind of chick flick that gives chick flicks a bad name.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jul 5, 2002

This film's intelligence and forthrightness about the things women sometimes do to one another ... set it head and shoulders above most contemporary movies that deal with friendships between women.

Full Review | Jul 2, 2002