Genres

Visitors Review

2012-05-25 10:58:06

Good movie despite problematic theme

Just found it in the video shop; obviously didn’t hope for much, but it turned out to be the best movie I’ve seen for quite a while.If you read the story, you’ll probably imagine “Terms of Endearment” or something of that sort, but this movie manages to stay a small distance off the â€~beaten track’, with some nice, original ideas. The casting is very good too (although most of the side-characters are Spanish, and I don’t know how realistic that is in Mid-West America). Another small problem is the monologues â€" there are too many, and some are too long. Apart from those problems â€" great movie. There is no exaggerated attempt to make the audience cry â€" but you’ll cry anyway… Anyone knows how to obtain a copy of Ruffalo’s sister’s cassette?

kmukh_73 2012-05-25 03:34:39

Eight Commandments to your Oblivion.

I am literally spellbound after watching this movie. One can't expect abetter movie than this one. Exceptionally brilliant and crispscreenplay, superb performances by all the actors (Sarah Polly, Debbie,Mark Ruffalo, Leonor Watling, Amanda Plummer and Scott Speedman).Besides, the story is so lively, so blatantly truthful and honest, youcan't expect any mediocre performances. If this is Isabel Coixet'sdirectional debut for English movie, I wonder in which class would beher next or may be the last one!!It's really fascinating to come out from the dungeons of our fake livesand lifestyles and peep into our future through Polley's eyes. Imagineyou have been told to last for 2months, what would you do, what wouldyou see, eat, drink, enjoy, feel?The last sunset, the last sunrise, the last snowfall, the birdschirping and making nests, wearing your torn jeans, eating thosediabetic ice creams, lying on the street after a drink and watching thenight sky....??? A Long List....just as Polley chose for herself the 8commandments before she dies!There are so many dreams a human has, some come true some don't, butout lives go on. It goes through every path (staright and crooked) andat the end of the day, you ask, "What did I live for?" "Was it (mylife) a worth"? "Any more unaccomplished dreams"? "Any dreams leftunfulfilled"? "What more could I have done"? Well, these thoughts donever come in your busy life, unless you retire. Whether it's the lastday at school, the last day at your college, the last day at yourparents home, the last day of your work or the last day of your life.If we add and sew the bits and pieces of these last moments, out comesthe fascinating story 'MY LIFE WITHOUT ME'.The movie is so natural, because of the story and because of theactors. Seldom has any movie left such a huge impact on thoughts andbeliefs and dreams in ourselves, so much so that, after watching themovie you start sketching your life (past, present and future). Themovie is unique, sublime to the human facts and dreams and extremelypassionate.Sarah Polley and Mark Ruffalo are and will always be on the top of myactors list, but I will watch out Isabel Coixet too for her next movie.Keep it up, this is called a movie; an art which touches and teacheshuman heart and soul.

2012-05-21 07:25:30

What a load of rubbish

This has to be one of the worst films I have ever seen, aside from the Royal Tenenbaums maybe

rps-2 2012-05-20 14:56:17

RBCF(Really bad Canadian film)

Each national genre of cinema has its techniques. Hollywoood has gunsand car chases. France has sex. In Canada, a film maker hiresincompetent actors, uses a rummage sale wardrobe, employs ramshacklesets and hires a second year film student with artistic pretensions butwithout talent as director. The producers then go to the public troughfor a government grant and subsidy to finance all this silver screensplendor. "My Life Without Me" meets all these important Canadiancriteria. The story line of a young women concealing her terminalcancer has potential. But it is so badly executed the viewer loses anyreal empathy. If film reflects life, this is a shoddy, smudged mirror.And like all mirror images, it offers only a two dimensional view.There are many things lacking but one of the most obvious is a haloover the head of the doomed character Ann. That would have been a moreappropriate touch than the inane, impromptu ballet in thesupermarket.Then there is the doctor, a dour faced medico with awimpish bedside manner who dispenses little cellophane wrapped candiesalong with his terminal diagnoses. I would not let this doctor treat mytoenails much less a serious ailment. And mom... frumpy and bitter withtoo much rouge and lipstick and too little credibility. We produce someexcellent shoe salesmen in this country. My recommendation is thatthose responsible for this movie seek their fortune there rather thanin cinema.

Zita Toth-Szollos 2012-05-17 17:15:03

Can't say anything but good

Have you ever seen a movie, that made you live, well more lively. WhenI first saw this film, I was crying, a lot. It is a beautiful story,which makes you start to think about your life. And maybe it helps youto change. Acting is spectacular. Sarah Polley is better than ever, sheis an acting-phenomena and she proves it in this movie. Okay, she maywill never be an A lister, but that is only because she doesn't want tobe. Marc Ruffalo is the biggest surprise for me. I never tought he is agood actor before, but he does his job very well. The other actors arealso more then perfect. Yes, it is a movie about death. And no, it isnot a movie about death. It is a movie about life, and about how muchyou can love. And if this movie doesn't make you love the ones aroundyou better, than nothing.

Lydia 2012-05-17 12:43:12

Beautiful, magic, deep, moving...Just Perfect!

"My life without me" is one of those rare jewels, where the only specialeffects that are used, are those brought by an extraordinary cast doingtheir best (and getting it) plus an amazingly touching work of a greatdirector.This film is like a Beethoven's symphony, a landscape ofScotland,or a dish cooked by the best chef: all the elements (actresses andactors,the story, the location...) are good for themselves, but, oncethey're all together, create something hard to imitate, a piece of art, alens that makes you change your perspective about life...Don't miss it, please!You won't regret it!

mastershaman 2012-05-11 17:48:05

God awful pretentious wank

I don't like being taken for an idiot. Spoon-fed obvious statements, nodramatic thrust and a heavy handed pretentious wank make this filmunbearable to watch. Sara Poley is trying, bless her heart, but thedirection blows. She also needs to look into voice-work. She doesn't haveavoice. The whole thing is forced and hardly believable. Even if it was,there was an opportunity to do something deep and great and interesting,instead the director's choice was to go for the lame and obvious andpresenta pretentious series of boring copy-cat scenarios and "seen it a thousandtimes" imagery. Don't waste your time with this there are plenty of goodmovies out there worth your 2 hours.

guy_lazarus 2012-05-11 03:51:10

Sarah Polley gives another great performance in quirky indie

Sarah Polley gives another great performance in this quirky indie, which isa small gem of a film. The idea of "chick flicks," particularly "Disease ofthe Month" movies, left me cold, but I went to see it as I am a huge Polleyfan. I was happily surprised by the quality of the film, thanks to the castand director Isabel Coixet.The movie was marvelous and utterly devoid of the cheap sentimentality thatmars so many Hollywood pictures. Stripping the story of sentimentalitycreated a nearly bare stage, emotionally, on which the luminous Polley couldreally shine. The movie -- a dying mother trying to cope with her young life being cutshort -- could have been dreadful; could have been dreadful, but was not.There are no miscalculations in the film and "My Life Without Me" turns outto be extraordinarily life-affirming. More significantly, it offers anincredible character in the doggedly determined, and ultimately heroic, Ann,played so poignantly by Polley.Can this actress get any better? Polley gives a performance that surelywould have been nominated for a best actress Academy Award if it had had amajor marketing budget and studio-supported Oscar campaign behind it. She'sthat good.Watch the scene where Polley, as Ann, tapes messages for her daughters to beplayed in the future, on their birthdays, when she is gone and...faded fromher daughters' memories. Polley is amazing. It's virtually an acting classfor thespians, young and old, apprentice, journeyman or master. Such a greattalent in a story worthy of that talent should not be missed.

rwtmoore 2012-05-10 13:36:05

Sad, cute - the end

Good acting couldn't save this script. The structure is horrible.There's the inciting incident - she gets cancer, but nothingsignificant happens after that. Nothing at stake, no risingcomplications, no real conflict, no climax, no resolution. Essentially,it's a non-story. No ebb and flow of tension and release. It's sad,then it gets sadder, then continued sadness with some Saccharine sweetcuteness, more sadness, more cuteness - the end.There are some pretentious images throughout. The director makes apoint of showing nearly every character smoking like a chimney exceptthe protagonist. OK, we get it. And the image of the glass playerseemed weirdly shoe-horned in. What is the significance? It could beremoved and nothing at all would change.And her "bucket list" is ridiculous. She vows to drink and smoke asmuch as she can. But, she's not a smoker, etc.The constant narration gave it a book on tape feel. You could probablyjust listen to this movie and know exactly what's going on. This makesit something other than a film.They make her out to be an angel - and she does look adorableconsidering she's only got weeks to live - but she uses a man for asexual experience and doesn't see her own selfishness when he falls inlove with her. And he doesn't mind at all when he finds out the truth.Where does this world exist? As the movie neared the end it became somelodramatic and sappy, it was unbearable.

jujyfruit2003 2012-05-10 04:14:23

The most beautiful movie I have ever seen!

My Life Without Me was by far the most beautiful movie I have ever seen,andI am not exaggerating. Sarah Polley gives a beautiful performance as ayoung mother (24 years of age) who is diagnosed with cancer and because ofher young age, has no way of stopping the cancer from spreading. Facedwiththis news she makes a list of things to do before she dies. Now I know bythe sound of it, it sounds like a "lifetime movie special" but honestly itis not at all and the reason is because this movie wasn't made byUniversal,Warner Brothers, or any other big movie company out there but by anindependent Canadian film company. Because it wasn't trying to be thenextbig blockbuster you will see that this movie is truthful and immenselybeautiful. Polley's and the rest of the supporting cast give strong andreal-to-life performances that will memorize you and make you appreciatelife. I give this film a 10/10.

sweetgirlie1 2012-05-05 21:48:45

Sad movie, excellent music

I enjoyed the reality of this movie. A young mother finds out she hastwo months to live and does her hardest to make them special. She makesout her "things to do before I die" list and sets out to fulfillingthem. Along the way, she meets a few new people from all walks of lifethat gravitate towards her; however, they benefit more from her thanshe does of them. In the meantime, she falls in love, finds a woman totake her place as the mother of her children and wife of her husband,and meets an interesting hair dresser with an obsession with MilliVanilli.Besides the great acting, the music in this movie is amazing! The manshe falls in love with (Mark Ruffalo) introduces her to his mix tapesthat his sister sends him. There is a really great song by BlossomDearie that just soothes the soul. I will be purchasing the soundtracksoon!

aram_mm 2012-05-05 15:20:01

Directed by a Spaniard

I have found many people on the IMDb not being able to empathyse withthe main character the way I did. At first it was only people whom Iconsidered were not making very intelligent remarks, but after a whileI noticed some people who seemed to be intelligent and weren't able toempathyse either. After giving the idea some thought, I have come upwith the impression that this might have being caused by subtlecultural differences. Coixet, the director and screen-play writer, isfrom Spain, being more precise, she is Catalan. Up to now she hasreleased three more films, two of them more than acceptable and thethird is as good as My life without me. In her films you can alwaysfind sensitive female characters (as in this one) that go through somekind of series traumatic events (though not necessarily terminal as inthis). In this film and in Thing I never told you, she uses a brilliantresource to let us know more about her characters'm inner world: sheuses confessions. In My life without me Sarah Polleys character'srecords cassettes to congratulate her daughters every birthday untiltheir 18th birthday. Those confessions are absolutely brilliant, theyshow a sensitivity that is seldom seen in any work of art.Everyone's performance is exceptional, the two little girls included.Amanda Plummer's performance and character are incredibly funny. I canonly recommend you to Give the film a try but always bear in mind thatno matter how Anglo-Saxon this film looks, it has been directed andwritten by a Spaniard, we are not Asian, but ours is still a differentculture and you might find some character's actions not as normal asyou would have expected.

2012-05-05 05:43:11

a real tearjerker! you will not live '"without" it....

you will not forget this one easily . the acting is superb all around but mark ruffalo steals the show wonderfully. if you liked "pieces of april"you should see this one . a very good satire of life .the writer/director done good with her job.

2012-05-04 19:30:55

A Fiercely Intelligent Meditation On The Unthinkable

Sarah Polley. Mark Ruffalo. Here we have two of the most talented, interesting actors at work in film today. In My Life Without Me they have a script and a director and each other to stretch with and the results are provocative and moving. From the first few moments of this artfully photographed archive of the last days of a life, I knew I was in for a treat. But nothing can prepare you for the powerful treatment of loss and grief which Polley's seemingly effortless portrayal of a doomed twenty-three year-old mother of two provides. There are actors who compel empathy in their audience simply by being so deeply immersed in character that states of emotional upheaval are communicated as if by telepathy. Polley has the gift. Whatever part she takes on she inhabits completely. Brilliant acting aside, I thought the narrative structure of My Life Without Me was quirky, full of surprise and never maudlin. Polley comments at one point in an unusually insightful voiceover about her fate that 'no one thinks about death in a supermarket.' This film exists precisely for those who would like nothing better than to spend a few hours thinking about the inevitable transition into oblivion. And about the legacy one would like to leave behind for those whom we love.

2012-05-02 21:41:14

Things to do before She dies

Sarah Polley (GO, Exotica) is the main character in My Life Without Me, a movie about a woman who finds out from her doctor, played by Julian Richings (Urban Legend) in a small but great performance, that she doesnt have long to live. She has a husband played by Scott Speedman (Duets, Dark Blue), 2 daughters and she lives in trailer close to her mother, played by Deborah Harry (Blondie lead singer, SPUN). Her dad is in prison...her dad is played by the always marvelous Alfred Molina (Chocolat, Spider-Man 2) in a small part as well. Polley has figured out that she needs to make a list of things She has to do before she dies. One of them is sleep with another man, get to know him. The man she does this to is played by Mark Ruffalo (Collateral, In The Cut). She also tape records stuff on a recorder for each year that her daughters have their birthdays and she has her doctor hang on to them. It really has its moments and when Polley's character dies it was effective because the camera was looking at her family....she was dying...we see threw her eyes the final moments before she passes and Sarah Polley is great, who cares what everyone else thinks, that's their review, that's their opinion, but I liked it. Speedman is great in this....he isnt fighting vampires in those lame ass Underworld movies here, he's showing some stuff and of course Ruffalo is good in anything he does, the guy is great. Also starring Marie De Medeiros (Pulp Fiction), Leonor Watling (Cronicas) and Amanda Plummer (Pulp Fiction, The Outer Limits) who works with Polley and has an eating problem.

2012-05-02 14:23:17

My life without me

Found Sarah Polley films about 1 year ago. I admire this young woman and her body of work. I am into Indie films and this one is worth checking out, one thing tho, subject matter may be upsetting to some, that is why the four stars although for me it could be a five. You laugh and you cry. just great.

2012-05-01 16:35:00

Poor Development

There wasn't any real character development. That was my main issue. Sorry, the whole bit about 'she was young and had to grow up fast'??? Please...you could have at least given the husband some flaws that made you understand her motive. He was/seemed to be a very sweet guy who wanted to be more than he was for her. He loved her and it showed....so no sympathy points for your character there...and also she would leave her kids with a stranger or at her moms so she could go screw someone she didn't even know??? Com'on! By the time this character dies, I was thinking...'thank god he's not married to that anymore'. There were things in the movie (i.e. her birth month compared to the sign later given and a couple other things) that took away from the movie also. The movie did what any movie, poorly done or not, about dying would do; make you look at what loose ends are in your life and if you're living it like you really want to. But as for character development and any compassion for the lead character, you made that a bit difficult...overall, not impressed with the screenplay.

2012-04-30 19:48:09

Emotional, Wonderful story

This is one of those rare movies you stumble on by chance, and after viewing it, just can not believe that no one is talking about it. It's a sad, thought provoking, intense, emotional, and almost depressing even story that is not to be missed. By the end of the credits I had a river of tears streaming down my cheeks, neck and chest from this powerful movie. You can only imagine what you might do in the character's situation, what you would like to do if you knew you were going to die. You wonder how you could tell your family, would you thell them? Would you tell anyone? This is a MUST SEE!

2012-04-28 09:00:45

touching little film

***1/2 A film from Canada, "My Life Without Me" is an understated account of a terminally ill woman's attempt to find meaning in her life before she dies. Anne is a 23-year old custodian who lives with her pool-cleaning husband and two daughters in a trailer behind her mother's house. When she receives the stunning news that she has only a few months to live, Anne decides to spend her remaining time doing all the things she never had a chance to do after she married and had her first child at seventeen. One of those goals involves having sex with someone besides her husband and getting a man to fall in love with her. "My Life Without Me" approaches a tricky subject with sensitivity and a minimum of sentimentality, helping the movie to steer away from the soap opera trappings of its story. The film avoids overstating the unhappiness of Anne's life, making it clear that, while she may not exactly be living in the lap of luxury, she does have a loving husband who cares deeply about her, as well as two young girls who are obviously the apple of their mother's eye. This makes Anne's desire to break away and find something better both more perplexing and more poignant than if her domestic life were harrowing and dismal. With the new perspective that dying affords her, Anne begins to see how we spend our days in a futile effort to divert our attention from the reality that we will all one day die. Anne makes recordings for all the people who have meant something to her in her life, helping them to not only cope with her death but to find some meaning and happiness in the lives they are still living.Sarah Polley gives a beautiful, heartbreaking performance as Anne, never allowing her character to become an object of pity despite the fact that she is a person being stricken down in the prime of her life. Her restrained style is matched by that of Deborah Harry as her bitter, eternally disappointed mother, Scott Speedman as her understanding husband, Mark Ruffalo as the man with whom she falls in love, and a whole host of other superb actors.Although it veers a little too close to slick Harlequin romance at times (the too-good-to-be-true husband, the conveniently available one-true-love paramour), "My Life Without Me" is a subtle, heartfelt film that touches the emotions even as it gives the mind something to think about. The lovely closing scene is as thought provoking as it is moving, a fitting finale to a quiet little gem of a film.

2012-04-27 15:37:40

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.