My Life Without Me

Plot

A young woman conceals the fact of her terminal cancer to live her life with a passion she never had before.

Release Year: 2003

Rating: 7.6/10 (13,564 voted)

Critic's Score: 57/100

Director:
Isabel Coixet

Stars: Sarah Polley, Scott Speedman, Mark Ruffalo

Storyline
Ann, 23 years old, lives a modest life with her two kids and her husband in a trailer in her mother's garden. Her life takes a dramatic turn, when her doctor tells her that she has uterine cancer and only two months to live. She compiles a list of things to do before she dies.

Writers: Isabel Coixet, Nanci Kincaid

Cast:

Sarah Polley
–

Ann

Amanda Plummer
–

Laurie

Scott Speedman
–

Don

Leonor Watling
–

Ann, the Neighbor

Deborah Harry
–

Ann's Mother

Maria de Medeiros
–

The Hairdresser

Mark Ruffalo
–

Lee

Julian Richings
–

Dr. Thompson

Kenya Jo Kennedy
–

Patsy

Jessica Amlee
–

Penny

Esther García
–

Camille Martinez
–

María Cami
–

Deanne Henry
–

Waitress

Gillian Barber
–

Nurse #1

Details

Official Website:
Official website [United States] |

Release Date: 7 March 2003

Filming Locations: New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office Details

Budget: €2,000,000

(estimated)

Opening Weekend: €225,800
(Spain)
(9 March 2003)
(74 Screens)

Gross: $4,914,268
(Japan)
(23 November 2003)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min
 |
Argentina: 107 min

Goofs:

Continuity:
In the scene where Lee and Ann are at Lee's house and Lee reads Ann a passage from a book, Ann throws away the book irritated after a few sentences. In the next shot, the floor where the book should have ended up is empty.

Quotes:

Ann:
[about the things in the mall]
It's just there to try and keep us away from death, and it doesn't work.

User Review

A life without you

Rating: 9/10


I picked up the cover of this film several times before I rented it.
The subject somewhat interested me but I also thought it was too
familiar, almost like a cliché. (Someone finds out he/she is dying and
it changes his/her life.) There are so many reasons why I am now so
glad that I finally did rent it and I am sure most of them have been
covered by other user-comments. The acting was convincing, the
soundtrack was great etc. 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. If you are dishonest to yourself you are
leading a life without you.