My Life Without Me

My Life Without Me

My Life Without Me

My Life Without Me

Something very positive happens in Hollywood and Indy films lately. Strong female roles ceased to be rare roles that are usually portrayed by Jodie Foster. More and more, lately, there is an abundance of strong female characters and more importantly, many actresses who can do these roles the justice they (both roles and actresses) deserve. Today there is a tremendous buzz over Scarlet Johansson (assuming she didn't waste it all on "The perfect score" which hadn't been released in Israel, yet). But Scarlet is not the only member on the ever growing list of actresses in their 20's with the maturity I'll probably never have (and I'm entering to my 30's), other actresses that pop into mind are Piper perabo (Lost and delirious), Maggie Gylenhaal (Secretary, Mona lisa smile) and Thora Birch (American beauty, Ghost world) to name just a few. In this film a "new" actress named Sarah Polley (she has the filmography many veteran actresses wish to have) emerges successfully from the pernicious world of child acting into a mature woman for her age which is, coincidentally the basic premise of the character she portrays. Ann is a 23 year old mother who is notified that because of a malignant tumour, her death is near. Ann decides, after her initial shock (maybe the best scene in the film) to accomplish a couple of assignments before passing away, one of which is to conceal the fact of her illness from her family in the rationalization of sparing them the endless hours of waiting in hospital friendly corridors and consuming hospital gourmet food. Ann spends the last two months of her life patching things with her long incarcerated father, develop a romantic fling with a pensive heart broken guy (Mark Ruffalo) and looks for an agreeable sucssessor mother to her family, among other things. This film has the idea and the cast to make it one of the best films 2003 had to offer but somewhere along the line, the emotional charge that this plot encompasses never comes to full exploitation and i found myself wondering if the movie's writer/director Isabel Coixet (i have no idea how to pronounce this name), in her attempt to make the movie optimistic and not just outright depressing, wrongfully decided to avoid emotional obstacles in her script and her direction. Another detail that bothers me in the film is what I refer to as the "Hollywooditis decease". This decease is a terminal one, but those who get it look absolutely great until the very last day of their lives. I don't pretend to be a doctor but it seems to me that a person with terminal cancer can't explain his/her fatigue simply by Anemia, Ann's cover story. But I dwell on the negative and in films its usually a dumn thing to do. The right thing to do is to make the overall judgement, the film is undoubtly good, Polley's performance is excellent and Debby Harry (Blondie's lead singer) is surprisingly good, but the movie leaves the viewer with the feeling it had the potential of being a masterpiece, which it isn't. 8.5 out of 10 in my FilmOmeter

Knowing that this was going to be an "artsy-fartsy" movie, I tried to remain open minded throughout the entire thing, but it is quite difficult for myself to see past the stale performances (the actors looked more like they reciting their lines rather than acting them out), the painful dialogue (which could have only worked with better actors), and rather uninteresting plot supported by uninteresting scenes. I give it a 3/10.

This is a story about a woman and herself. She has lived selflessly (if there is such a thing) for her entire life, it seems. She learns she is dying, and decides to fulfill some of her dreams which so far have been disappointed. She breaks someone's heart. She keeps her family together, as best she can. She wants to prepare them for life without her. Her life without her. She learns about herself. The people around her. People in general. This movie more than any other it seems, tells us that people are a selfish species. More than any animal, we, who have compassion and logic and reason and love, live the most selfish lives. There are no true selfless acts. This movie is a beautiful character study.

Does anybody have the initial quote, when she's standing at the rain, talking about herself? I'm missing the memorable quotes in movie profile. I loved the movie. Impossible not be touched by it. Simply and lovely. No special effects, nothing new, a life like any other. But so hard and true. Dense and complete, talk about love, fear, dead, future, dreams and desires. About hurry to live, not surviving. A hard life but full with love. How to protect the one you love when you're not around anymore. Perfect. And what about the soundtrack? It's already available?

This movie should have been a knockout for everybody. But it wasn't. With a story that leads to tears, I didn't cry but I should have done it. You have a tumor, the doctor said. She manages to do the best in the rest of her life. She will write ten things to do before she's dead. She does it so fast that left me thinking: How did he write this ten things without thinking a bit? She writes one after the other. Took her one minute. That is strange. I think this movie should have had more music score and have had to be spoken in the nature language of the director and producers: that would be Spanish. That would have lead everybody to a K.O. In spite of this you'll find very good acting and photography. I give this movie a 7 out of 10. Andrés.

this movie was done with such great thought....i just didn't have anything to say when it was done besides that, that really makes you think about life does it? I loved it, it was sad, but that's what i would have done if i was her. Enjoy life while you are not going through something like that and don;t take advantage of any moment that you are given....be positive and love life...

Horrid. This self-centered jerk dedicates the last few months of her life to hurting all the people who gave nothing but their love and devotion. She lies, cheats , and breaks hearts so unapologetically you are grateful when she does. Furthermore, she displays her cowardice by getting away with it. A soulless harpy undeserving of anyone's love or caring, and the most distasteful lead I've seen in a long time. I'm glad she died, I only wish she had suffered more. Utterly without integrity or conscience. Don't waste your time on this piece of self serving garbage. How we face death shows a great deal about our character, which this person had none. She does get credit for doing such a remarkable job portraying how ugly a person can be, and making truly stupid people think this is "heartfelt".