neumu [ cinematronic ]




	My Life Without Me
	Isabel Coixet Sarah Polley, Mark Ruffalo, Amanda Plummer, Scott Speedman, Leonor Watling, Deborah Harry, Alfred Molina, Maria de Medeiros, Julian Richings 2003		Due to the glimmer and delicacy of Sarah Polley's performance and an intimate, mostly unsentimental approach, "My Life Without Me" — about a wife and mother in her early 20s who learns that she has a terminal illness — avoids being scuttled by a melodramatic disease-of-the-week TV-movie vibe. Ann (Polley), a kindly, ethereal trailer-park denizen, has two months to live. She decides to spend the rest of her brief time on the planet by doing a handful of things that she's never done, and by finding someone to replace her in the lives of her unwitting husband Don (Scott Speedman) and their children. She tells no one of her plight, not her bitter, working-class mother (Deborah Harry) nor her impish best friend/co-worker (Amanda Plummer). Instead, Ann tries to settle her affairs and spare everyone the agony of her tragedy until it's too late. Having never been with a man other than Don, Ann resolves to bed someone different before she's too sick to do it. But her chance encounter and flirtation with decent but troubled Lee (Mark Ruffalo of "You Can Count on Me") creates an affecting moral dilemma. You may hate yourself for weeping at brave Ann's plight as sad music swells, but Polley earns your tears.