Takes place in late fall and early winter, when everything is cold, gray and dying. It's a tough context for a tender story.
My Life Without Me (2003)
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Reviews Counted:100
Fresh:65
Rotten:35
Average Rating:6.3/10
Consensus: Sarah Polley keeps this production afloat with her moving performance.
Theatrical Release:Sep 26, 2003 Limited
Box Office: $200,852
Synopsis: Ann is 23, she has 2 daughters, a husband who spends more time unemployed than working, a mother who hates the world, a father who has spent the last ten years in jail, a strange predilection for... Ann is 23, she has 2 daughters, a husband who spends more time unemployed than working, a mother who hates the world, a father who has spent the last ten years in jail, a strange predilection for the audio-books of soap operas and a job as a night janitor in a university she could never go to in the dayime. They live in a trailer on the yard of her mother’s house, on the outskirts of Vancouver. However, this gray existence changes completely when, after a medical check-up, a shy doctor tells her that she has very little time left, hardly two months to live. Ann decides to keep her condition a secret, not to tell anybody, not even her husband. She doesn't want people around her with long faces mumbling the word "death." She starts to make a list of "things to do before dying" which she completes little by little. The list goes from "saying exactly what I think" to "getting fake fingernails." Unexpectedly, Ann discovers an appetite for life that drives her to live her last days with a sensual and furious intensity she had not known before. During that time she prepares her daughters life without her, meets a solitary wounded man who she seduces (and paradoxically brings back to life), and faces what remains of her life with a courage she never knew she had. -- © Sony Pictures Classics [More]
Starring: Sarah Polley, Mark Ruffalo, Scott Speedman, Leonor Watling
Starring: Sarah Polley, Mark Ruffalo, Scott Speedman, Leonor Watling, Deborah Harry, Amanda Plummer, Maria De Medeiros
Director: Isabel Coixet
Director: Isabel Coixet
Screenwriter: Isabel Coixet
Producer: Esther Garcia, Gordon McLennan
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
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Reviews for My Life Without Me
Coixet does an admirable job of sustaining the sadness for long stretches of time.
What's miraculous about My Life Without Me is that the movie avoids bathos almost entirely, its considerable potential for cloying sentimentality undercut by a streak of wry, gentle humor.
Makes you think twice about what's really important in life and a movie that can do that is a movie worth seeing.
Polley's Ann is scrappy, honest, and warm, not someone to be pitied or doubted or chastened.
Insistent and unforgettable, it wounds on the inside, and the scars feel fresh for some time.
The beauty of this tender gift of a movie is that it treats the daily life of tiny obligations and pleasures as something to pay exquisite heed to.
Despite some initial misgivings, My Life Without Me wound up breaking down my resistance.
Ann ... would be a cruel egocentric if she weren't so obviously just a fictional pawn.
Despite several touching scenes, the script comes perilously close to being maudlin and, while competent, Polley doesn't have the flair to make anything special out of her big role.
What saves My Life Without Me from the status of a five-Kleenex weepie is the maturity of vision that permeates the writing and direction and shines through each performance.
Ms. Coixet's actor-friendly direction and character-friendly screenplay evoke strong performances from most parties.
Sarah Polley exudes a steadfast joie-de-vivre that ultimately won me over.
A sad but thought-provoking meditation on life, its end, and the freedom and perspective that come with knowing when that time will come.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 95% 95% | Star Trek |
| 14% 14% | The Ugly Truth |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 86% 86% | A Christmas Tale |
| 60% 60% | Paper Heart |
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