Me Without You

Me Without You comes from the UK. Let's start with some key phrases: chick flick, coming of age, buddy picture. Those don't begin to describe this film about 30 years of friendship between Anna Friel and Michelle Williams. It is the best insight yet put on film of the dynamics of female best friends. Friel is outgoing, outrageous, and has an older brother. Williams is Jewish, an only child, and has a crush on Friel's brother, which Friel is dead set against. The film follows them through adolescence (where Friel tries heroin and Williams loses her virginity with Friel's brother), college (where they end up shagging the same tutor), and finally to married life. It frequently seems like their relationship is permanently shattered, but female "best friend" is made of stouter stuff than that.

NUDITY REPORT

Friel and Williams both show breasts, first in a long bath together, then in after sex scenes.

Scoop's comments in yellow:

I had to struggle through this one, although it's probably an OK movie. Although audiences stayed away in droves, many critics liked it, but I just didn't interest me.

This is the film which traces the history of a girl/girl friendship from childhood until the two girls have their own children the same age that they were when the cycle began. Instead of honesty and happiness for one another's successes, the girls build a friendship based on jealousy and back-stabbing, even though they genuinely like and love each other. My daughter and my niece both tell me that this is exactly how girls really relate to one another, and so this script is probably spot-on in its portrayal of the female friendship dynamic, but I understood that before I watched the film, and I just wasn't interested in seeing it portrayed, so I found the film boring.

DVD info from Amazon.

Widescreen anamorphic, 1.85:1. Dark transfer with what seems to be insufficient color saturation
no features.

It was like watching the Babe Ruth story if you hate baseball. You can see how baseball lovers might like it, but you can't share their enthusiasm.

I really couldn't find one thing to like about the film except the brief nudity, and even that was too little, too dark or blurry, and too unrevealing, although it was still welcome because both of the women possess talent and a solid career. The DVD is basically nothing more than the movie. Although it is a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation, the colors are too dark, uncontrasted, and faded for my taste.

The Critics Vote

General USA consensus: three stars. Ebert 3.5/4, Berardinelli 3/4, BBC 3/5

Rotten Tomatoes summary. 70% positive.

Metacritic.com. 67/100

movie review query engine. 59 reviews on file

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 6.6/10. It has a classic chick-flick profile: Men 6.3, Women 7.2

It did virtually no business on either side of the Atlantic. It peaked at 30 screens in the UK, never even made it to that many in the USA

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, Tuna says, "I am torn between a B- and a C+, as I think the film has broader appeal than a simple genre effort.". Scoop says, "I disagree. I suppose it probably goes the other way most of the time, but this time I shared the public's apathy and Tuna shared the critics' enthusiasm. Essentially I found it to have no appeal at all, was bored, and couldn't wait for it to end. It may be an OK movie because of the honesty of the portrayals and the solid performers, but it seems like your basic run-of-the-mill chicksploitation presentation. C"