Review of My Life Without Me (2003) by Mark A — 04 Nov 2010
How would you react if you knew, at the age of 23, that you only had two months to live, at best? That is the premise of this highly emotional story told unflinchingly under the direction of Isabel Coixet.
Sarah Polley is Ann, the woman who gets the devastating news, and decides not to tell anyone that she is dying. That might not be your choice, but given the life she has led to this point, the absent father, the chain smoking mother, the life in a trailer with the first man she kissed and two their kids, her choices make a certain kind of sense.
It is not as depressing as it sounds. There are several lighter moments that relive the gloom. Most of those involve her co-worker, Laurie (Amanda Plummer), an image obsessed woman who thinks she is fat and everyone else is successfully dieting.
Mark Ruffalo plays Lee, the damaged soul who helps Ann to feel fully alive even as she is letting go of the life she has known. The only false note involved an impossible scenario involving conjoined twins, but it is not central to the story and only briefly interrupted the flow.
The story transcended the characters' situations and dealt with a universal theme of mortality and discovering what is truly important in life. The economic situation and the educational level of the characters provided a limiting factor, and gave credence to the choices that Ann makes.
Each of us, facing the same prospect, might not make those same choices, but that there would be choices to make was the point and the message of the film. So how would you react?
This review of My Life Without Me (2003) was written by Mark A on 04 November 2010.
My Life Without Me has generally received positive reviews.
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