admin
22 December 2023
Ah,.. the feel-good movie of the year is here! Watch Sarah Polley play a 23-year-old mother of two dying of stomach cancer for two hours! PASS THE POPCORN, DUDES!
Don’t be mad at me for that “spoiler” in the last paragraph. I’m not giving away anything that the trailer doesn’t. That’s what the movie is about. Polley plays Ann, a young woman who got knocked-up at 17 by the first boy she ever kissed. She lives with him and their daughters in a trailer in her mom’s backyard, and works nights as a janitor. She seems pretty happy, all things considered. Maybe it’s because she’s Canadian.
So, she finds out she’s going to die in about two months. Instead of being a decent human being and telling everyone as a courtesy, so they can try to come to terms with it and prepare themselves (I’d probably drink and cry a lot, much like normal life.), she chooses to keep it a secret. Odd decision, but the movie treats it as kinda brave and poignant. She doesn’t want to spend her last days as a dying person. Reads pretty well on paper.
She makes a list of everything she wants to do before the end. This is the crux of the movie. She wants to make a birthday message on tape for her daughters for every birthday until they’re 18 (overdone a little, but it gives the movie some good scenes), go to the beach, and do one thing that I won’t give away-- one thing that threatens to make her a far less sympathetic character. One of the guys I went to the move with flat-out hated her for it; couldn’t wait for her to die. It is an odd choice for the filmmakers to include.
The performances in the movie are great across the board, though. Blondie’s Deborah Harry-- looking more mannish than ever-- is pretty heartbreaking as Ann’s mother. The boys in the flick are fine, too. But this is Sara Polley’s movie all the way, and she gives one of the best performances I’ve seen in awhile.
I don’t know. I can’t say I liked the film wholeheartedly, but it has its moments. The look, feel, and tone of My Life Without Me is subtle and interesting. But if you’re already feeling down, stay away from this one and rent Strange Brew or something uplifting instead. Seriously. For your own good.
Don’t be mad at me for that “spoiler” in the last paragraph. I’m not giving away anything that the trailer doesn’t. That’s what the movie is about. Polley plays Ann, a young woman who got knocked-up at 17 by the first boy she ever kissed. She lives with him and their daughters in a trailer in her mom’s backyard, and works nights as a janitor. She seems pretty happy, all things considered. Maybe it’s because she’s Canadian.
So, she finds out she’s going to die in about two months. Instead of being a decent human being and telling everyone as a courtesy, so they can try to come to terms with it and prepare themselves (I’d probably drink and cry a lot, much like normal life.), she chooses to keep it a secret. Odd decision, but the movie treats it as kinda brave and poignant. She doesn’t want to spend her last days as a dying person. Reads pretty well on paper.
She makes a list of everything she wants to do before the end. This is the crux of the movie. She wants to make a birthday message on tape for her daughters for every birthday until they’re 18 (overdone a little, but it gives the movie some good scenes), go to the beach, and do one thing that I won’t give away-- one thing that threatens to make her a far less sympathetic character. One of the guys I went to the move with flat-out hated her for it; couldn’t wait for her to die. It is an odd choice for the filmmakers to include.
The performances in the movie are great across the board, though. Blondie’s Deborah Harry-- looking more mannish than ever-- is pretty heartbreaking as Ann’s mother. The boys in the flick are fine, too. But this is Sara Polley’s movie all the way, and she gives one of the best performances I’ve seen in awhile.
I don’t know. I can’t say I liked the film wholeheartedly, but it has its moments. The look, feel, and tone of My Life Without Me is subtle and interesting. But if you’re already feeling down, stay away from this one and rent Strange Brew or something uplifting instead. Seriously. For your own good.
artid
1836
Old Image
6_4_lifewithout.jpg
issue
vol 6 - issue 04 (dec 2003)
section
entertainmental