Me Without You (2001)

Very Cool!!!

Just perfect...

I wanted to but couldn't!

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The subject of this film isn't new at all. Nor is it original: the coming of age of two girlfriends. We follow them from their childhood in 1973 up to the first years of the 21st century.First, 'Me without you' offers a nice going back to those years for everyone around at the time. Getting nostalgic without overdoing it. After having gotten yourself in the right mood, it's only a small step to recall memories about your own first love-experiences from those years. This film's soapy & easy-going style invites you to them.This presentation is well supported by a tasty picturing. Without being great or expensive, it delivers just a right amount of intimacy to let the plot work.

This 2001 film from British director Sandra Goldbacher is a coming-of-age story about intense female teenage bonds and what happens to them on the road to adulthood. Marina (a splendid Anna Friel) and Holly (Michelle Williams) are in young years already fervently loyal best friends who live next door to each other. Perhaps as a reaction to this over-intensity and partly due to different parental backgrounds, their personalities develop into near opposites: Marina is a self-consciously wild party-girl and eclectic dresser who dabbles with heroin and casual sex, whilst Holly is a Sylvia Plath reading intellectual, a steadier, introverted being who feels mousy and unsexy (her domineering mother is shown telling her "There are pretty people, and there are clever people," as if the two were mutually exclusive). Marina deliberately tries to sabotage the burgeoning love between her brother Nat (Oliver Milburn) and Holly, tearing up a letter intended for her, and manipulatively telling him of Holly's affair with Daniel, their American lit-crit professor. Predictably jealous of Holly finding favour with Daniel (Kyle MacLachlan) – both of whom are Jewish and intellectual – Marina seduces him and tries to impress him by name-dropping Ingmar Bergman. Needless to say, the friendship between the two young women quickly becomes toxic and neurotic as Marina behaves increasingly possessive and histrionic, interpreting Holly's growing automony as a rejection of the friendship itself.It is a fascinating topic and one to which many women can relate. However, there are a few facets that forestall 'Me Without You' from being a great film. The director drew inspiration from an osmotically close bond she experienced as a young teenager which petered out, but was not reflected upon by the two in adulthood (at least not together). In the film, you feel that the difficulties are dramatically presented, but without them being questioned or actively dealt with by the protagonists. Holly fails to confront Marina with the truth of her behaviour, tacitly tolerating her unspoken dominance in the friendship. For her part, Marina also seems to be unable to mature beyond competitivism and rivalry with Holly. This prevents growth and development in character, in the light of which the ending seems unsatisfactorily positive. The viewer is left wondering when Holly will give her quiet suffering a voice and set Marina clear limits in their contact. Also, the script (written by Goldbacher and Laurence Coriat) occasionally lets the film down. The expression "it's so street!", for example, is used so often it grates; the funky jargon of the period could have been used much more liberally and subtly and to better effect. The soundtrack also comes across as a little 'stuck on' and predictable: a Joy Division poster hangs on the wall, records of The Clash, Adam Ant and Depeche Mode spin on the turntables and an attempted suicide (by Marina's mother, deftly performed by Trudie Styler) is accompanied by the music of Nick Drake, himself a famous suicide.It's nevertheless worth watching, especially for those who feel nostalgic for 1970s and 1980s fashion and music and for those who have experienced a close, deep friendship drifting into a stifling and over-dependent osmosis.Also recommended: My Summer of Love, The Page Turner, Look at Me (2005), Gespenster (a German film)

"Me Without You" traces the lives and loves of two females (Friel & Williams) through 2-3 decades beginning in their teens. The girls are a study in contrasts. One's Jewish, the other gentile. One is cerebral, the other visceral. One is extroverted, the other introverted. One is the kind you take home to mommy, the other the kind you take home to daddy....etc. With no real plot, the film simply travels through time hitting all the obligatory benchmarks....first smoke, drink, drugs; first sex, love, breakup; first college course, job; etc. "Me Without You" will appeal most to those who can buy into the obviously manufactured characters and their seemingly endless growing pains. Can you say "chick flick"? (C+)

A real look at women with depth and foibles sustaining a friendship- Why is this so rarely done? The details are succinct and amazing. This is what real people look like and act like- when they're tired, confused, angry, jealous etc., etc. No glossing. By showing the 'bones' of the characters' neuroses the evolution of the people themselves and their friendship becomes complex and satisfying. And,hey, the period details are fabulous- I was right back there with them wearing tarty, tatty club clothes and listening to Adam Ant with fake pirates. Loved this movie.