My Life Without Me

A film set in Canada about a woman who is dying. Ann is twenty-three. She has two daughters, lives in a caravan in her mother's garden and cleans at a university at night. Her husband is out of work. She goes to hospital with stomach pain. The doctor gives her the result: the cancer has spread and she has two or three months. She tells nobody. Instead she makes a list: record birthday messages for her daughters up to their eighteenth, get her nails done, find her husband a new wife, find out what it is like with someone else, talk to her mother. The film follows that list in order. The narrative's choice is not to make you cry. Ann does not react emotionally; she works through it calmly, practically and with resolve. That attitude is what the film is most discussed for, and some critics found it cold. Sarah Polley plays Ann, Deborah Harry her mother and Mark Ruffalo the man she meets. Amanda Plummer and Scott Speedman are in the cast. Isabel Coixet directed. A striking example for anyone who likes restrained drama and character-driven storytelling. Before you watch, know this: its subject is death directly and the film does not change the ending.