My Life Without Me

Plot synopsis:
Ann (Sarah Polley) is a hard-working 23-year-old mother with two small daughters, an unemployed husband (Scott Speedman), a mother (Deborah Harry) who sees her life as a failure, and a jailed father whom she has not seen for ten years. Her life changes dramatically when, during a medical checkup following a collapse, she is diagnosed with metastatic ovarian cancer and told that she has only two months to live.
Deciding not to tell anyone of her condition and using the cover of anemia, Ann makes a list of things to do before she dies. She decides to change her hair, record birthday messages for the girls for every year until they're 18, and tries to set up her husband with another woman.
Feeling a longing to experience a life that was never available to her, she seeks out a man to experience how it feels to be in a sexual relationship with someone other than her husband. Her experiment ends up taking an emotional toll when she meets with a man named Lee, who ends up madly in love with her and is left heartbroken when Ann breaks up. He meets with her one last time and says that he will do anything to make her happy, taking care of her daughters and even finding her husband a new job. She ends their relationship and never tells him that she is dying.
At the end of the film, Ann records a message to her husband, telling him that she loves him, and another one to Lee, telling him the same. She then leaves all tapes that she has recorded with her doctor, asking him to deliver them after her death.

Tags: thought-provoking, romantic, sentimental, storytelling, flashback

Review:
When Polley's "Ann" gets her death sentence from a doctor who can't even look her in the eyes, she resolves, among other items on her "To Do Before I Die" list, to tell it like it is -- but finds that instead everyone around her spills out their inner-most problems and she doesn't get to, including an amusing effort to get a Milli Vanilli-loving hairdresser to cut her hair like she wants it.
This is where Mark Ruffalos character, a considerate and thought-provoking love-interest, makes an entrance.This films moves slowly towards the inevitable end without ever becoming boring.
What could have turned into a hollow movie only made to make you cry, became a deep, witty and truly heartbreaking personal journey into a young woman's mind, Ann (beautifully performed by Sarah Polley).
When Ann gets to know that she has a terminal cancer which is going to kill her in a couple of months, she decides to live to the fullest - and doesn't tell anyone about her weak health state.Isabel Coixet led everything wonderfully, and the entire cast is magnificent (even Scott Speedman is pretty good).
Amanda Plummer, as Ann's obsessed-with-food friend, proves definitely her taste for bizarre characters (what's far from being a fault, in her case); Deborah Harry is surprising as Ann's bitter mother; Mark Ruffalo (one of the best actors nowadays), as a lonely man who falls in love with Ann, is captivating and passionate, and Leonor Watling is not only a beautiful Spanish girl.
but what I liked most and what moved me most was how it sincerely and beautifully conveyed messages of love, not only Ann's love of her family, friends and lovers but the love she found of herself and of life itself, awakened by the discovery of her untimely death.I watched the film by myself and I recommend that you do so also, not because you will get emotional and may start to cry, which you might, but because you will probably be more honest to yourself in your thoughts if you are all alone.
An attractive young mother discovers she has 2 months to live and sets about trying to make use of her time doing things for herself and the people she loves; but keeping her diagnosis to herself.
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 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.
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.
Polley gives a remarkable performance as a young wife and mother who is diagnosed with terminal cancer and with the few precious months left to her own devices she decides not to tell anyone but instead attempts to live life by her own guidelines including taking a lover (Ruffalo in a genial turn) and setting her family up with a new mother figure in the form of new next door neighbor Watling (who gives a heartrending speech about her occupation as a nurse) and in the process realizing just how important it is to live life each day as if it were indeed your last.
This is what you get from Bad Canadian (Heavily Government Subsidized) film-making -- an insufferably unrealistic look at a young woman dying of ovarian cancer, and how she spends her last few weeks.There are some fine actors here (Sarah Polley, Alfred Molina, Amanda Plummer) and I can't imagine how they got talked into this.
Yeah, I am sure he's going to obligate himself to a total stranger for that long...obviously he doesn't treat any other terminal patients.Having decided to make a list of what she wishes to accomplish before she dies (in a couple of weeks, no concern for how sick she will be), Ann chooses a lot of vain and silly, selfish things -- the chief of which is that she will have sex with a man besides her apparently deeply devoted, loving, handsome and sexy husband (Scott Speedman, in a thankless role) and make that new man fall in love with her.
And isn't it nice that she has the energy, sexual desire and NO PAIN that will make a vigorous new sexual relationship even possible while she is dying from terminal ovarian cancer....Other posters have commented on the funniest bit in the whole film, when Ann scouts out a woman for her husband to marry after she is gone (apparently he will have no choice in the matter) and locates a nurse who has moved in RIGHT NEXT STORE (good thing she is young and pretty, and not fat and fifty).
So, instead of any human feeling or reaction (what about fear, anger, sadness?), the happily dying Ann hides her condition from her lovely husband (he only seems to exists to play a wonderful husband, read stories to a couple of wonderful girls, clean the wonderful trailer) and from everybody, except us, of course, because we have to listen to the voice from time to time, and the voice knows the voice will die soon.Few movies can get that far from reality to prove a finally pointless point: "life is good, make the most of it"."My life without me" has the depth of a fortune cookie, the same insight into human nature, working class people; and, most of all, the same sweet but intolerable taste.The story is simply ludicrous.
The story is the best for me, full of feelings.The music is so beautiful that you should hear it until the end of the film,when only appear the name of the actors.The character of Sarah Polley is a young girl with a lot of dreams that she wants to complete before her dead.
...I loved this movie, because it is real and honest and offered me something that will stay with me for a very long time, ...a "very good" interpretation of how to move through life.--Bob Jacobs, Los Angeles.
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.
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.
Sarah Polley turns in a beautiful performance as a woman fulfilling her "Things to do before I Die" list.Scott Speedman gives a wonderful performance as a loving husband and father.
A woman with cancer stage 4, well she seems perfectly fine to me in whole movie and in fact very selfishly portrayed character, has a very loving and caring husband and she decides to have sex with other men to know how it feels, and she in fact falls in love with another guy, oh come on she is not a good example, I think if we know we will die in 2 months, the first thing is we will want to be as much good to our family as possible and here we have this young lady betraying her husband which is epic in my opinion, she has 2 lovely daughters a lovely husband and a very decent mother, I think she wants everyone feel the pain or maybe she is too dumb to know that they will feel more pain, the way she recorded all those tapes to remind them of her in future...ROFL I didn't feel any sympathy for her even if she was dying and reason is she started betraying her own family, her husband mainly and her daughters, moreover I wanted her to die faster cuz I was worried what if her husband found out she is doing it with another guy, that would have been disastrous for that poor husband lol, he would have died before her.
Alas, nothing like that happens in life.The film is not unpleasant to watch, thanks to the luminous Sarah Polley, who is at the center of the story.
one particular aspect that i found to be quite interesting was the emphasis on the underlying morbidity in each of our lives...the morbidity that most of us tend to overlook every now and then, and more so the beauty of each persons individual approach to concealing hurtful truths.don't get me wrong.......its not like I'm encouraging each one of us to go out there and start getting depressed about things, but the 'realness' to this movie was truly inspiring.
It is a perfect movie to let people get their mind onto thinking at things like: death and life.
The main character at the beginning of the movie discovers she is going to die in two months or so and having to deal with the recent news she kinda plans her last days of living...
The acting is all pretty good, but overall the movie is dominated by Polley who gives one of the best performances I've seen in a long time.
I enjoyed this movie and I would recommend it to most women between the ages of 16 and 40...the story was great the emotion was not overwhelming and wonderfully portrayed...two thumbs up...Sarah Polley did a authentic portrayal of the feelings of a young mother...add that to the fact that she is going to die and this young woman becomes a hero...Deborah Harry's part as a bitter divorcée was great however she could have been a bit more loving towards her child...Ann was a great character and it was good to see young people acting responsible for a change...irregardless of the situation that Don and Ann found themselves in they still kept it together and were loving their daughters...Good movie!!!.
Sure, this subject was explored in a touching early season episode of "The Simpsons" as well as in a hit song by Tim McGraw, but the Carpe Diem message seems not to tire.The film casts Sarah Polley as a young woman diagnosed with a fast acting cancer, who has been given two months to live.
Her father is in prison, she has problems with her mom and when she finds out she's going to die, her husband and her two little daughters don't know about it.In Nanci Kinkaid's (the writer of the book the movie is based on) world, young Ann will have to grow up quickly again, but this time she has more than one day.
They felt real for some reason, acting to start with, and I cared for Ann. I felt sympathy for her but I also wanted her to tell everything to Don, Penny, Patsy, her mother, Lee. I wanted what was best for all of these characters.Ruffalo is an actor I will always like, especially in films like this or 'You Can Count on Me'.
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsMy Life Without Me tells the tale of Ann (Sarah Polley),a young twentysomething woman.She's married to her only high school sweetheart Don (Scott Speedman),has two young children,Penny (Jessica Amlee) and Patsy (Kenya Jo Kennedy),lives with her family in a van in the back of her mother's (Deborah Harry) house and does her bit to provide for them by working a nightshift as a janitor at her local university.One day,she suffers some excruciating chest pains while staying with her mother.When she goes down the hospital to have them checked out,the doctor tells her that she has a terminal illness,that,on account of her age it is inoperable and that she only has a short period of time to live,simple as that.Like many people in her position,Ann realises the one upside to her unfortunate predicament and sets herself ten goals she would like to acheive before she pops her clogs.This is an original and inspired concept,albeit admittently a little dour and downbeat sounding one.But,while,for instance,the Tim Robbins death row drama Dead Man Walking was a little too much emphasised on the spell binding acting and stirring story without realising how upsetting it was being (in my opinion),MLWM is,in comparison,a story that manages a much more happy medium.It's perfectly moving and even gut wrenching when it needs to be,but also has a quirky and engaging charm and quality to it,which makes it an all the more pleasurable experience.It's obviously a small,independent film,with mostly supporting character actors in the lead roles (the only one I recognised,to be honest,was former Blondie lead vocalist Harry) and that only makes it seem all the more unpretentious and sincere than if it had been some major Hollywood production.It seems a good outlet for an undiscovered talent to flourish,and the actors involved here certainly deserve to go further in their careers.Polley,especially,in the lead is tremendously engaging,turning in a performance that is by turns enlightening,funny and moving.Like the rest,it doesn't seem like anyone could have done it better.This is my definition of what good movie-making is all about.I had reservations myself about going to see it to begin with,as I wasn't sure it would be my type of film and that I may have been tempted by a catchy trailer,but I was more than thankful that I did.I would implore you to do likewise.It's a superb film,and it's one of the best films I've seen all year.Or may even be the best.*****.
"My life without me" is one of those rare jewels, where the only special effects that are used, are those brought by an extraordinary cast doing their best (and getting it) plus an amazingly touching work of a great director.This film is like a Beethoven's symphony, a landscape of Scotland, or a dish cooked by the best chef: all the elements (actresses and actors,the story, the location...) are good for themselves, but, once they're all together, create something hard to imitate, a piece of art, a lens that makes you change your perspective about life...
No Life There To See. 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.
Working-class wife and devoted mother to two small girls finds out she has ovarian tumors which have spread, leaving her with only two months to live; she decides not to tell anyone her prognosis, instead writing out a list of things to do before she dies and making voice-tapes to her loved ones expressing her emotions.
Real people,real persons, real dialogue every aspect of this movie seems so real, children act and talk like normal children would,next door Neighbour also, and of course the main theme here is how to deal with a very hard subject, your own death and having 2 small children and a loving husband is not a easy task.I thought this movie would turn out to be a little house on the Prairie crying festival, but life's full of surprises and this is one of them, true emotions here hits you in the gut but also in the heart.Sarah Polley is a actress to watch out for after her performance here,in some scenes her charm and beauty blinds me, and her emotions feel really real, see get's an A+ with a star for this movie.
There are lots of movies about people dying young, but none like My Life Without Me. It is about a young woman who conceals the fact of her terminal cancer to live her life with a passion she never had before.
An excellent film with vivid characters and great acting of Sarah Polley make this a great movie.