My Life Without Me
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: September 26, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
10
Negative:
3

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
One of the year's sweetest surprises. It sneaks up on you, disarming you with its modesty and tenderness, its remarkable lack of self-infatuation. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
The most life-affirming film about death to come along in ages. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Coixet’s film begins with the quiet patter of rain on skin and holds that somehow sweetly sorrowful tone throughout. Read full review
75
New York PostMegan Lehmann
This contemplative drama manages to dodge mawkish potholes to emerge as a strangely life-affirming work. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
There are a thousand ways you can imagine My Life Without Me going gruesomely wrong but, somehow, it doesn't. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Polley's performance is pitch-perfect. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Successfully surmounts nearly all the challenges of making a film about a young person dying. Which means the writer-director avoids pitfalls. It is not cloying or sentimental or falsely optimistic. It avoids bathos and exaggerated emotions. Instead, the film affirms life in surprising and gratifying ways. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
My Life Without Me was produced by the studio of Pedro Almodóvar, and one sees the Spanish director's influence in the way Polley edges her Madonna with a touch of the reckless sensualist. Read full review
70
VarietyDavid Stratton
With a glowing performance by Sarah Polley as the doomed woman, this Spanish-Canadian co-prod, filmed in English, is surprisingly adept at avoiding the worst cliches and most manipulative elements inherent in such a story. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
A splendid cast, coupled with Isabel Coixet's deeply committed writing and direction, goes a long way to make this movie affecting to watch even it if doesn't hold up well to reflection once the lights go up. Read full review
70
Film ThreatDavid Grove
The film has a lot of humor and joy in it. Read full review
70
Washington PostSarah Kaufman
Not a gentle film. Insistent and unforgettable, it wounds on the inside, and the scars feel fresh for some time. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderRonnie Scheib
A magnificent performance by Sarah Polley illuminates every frame of this relatively upbeat melodrama. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
This hankie-yanker is an emotional cheat. Read full review
63
PremiereKelly Borgeson
Touching. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
It has a naive, heartfelt selfishness that may offend some viewers, and a resolve that others will find intensely soothing. ''Dying's not as easy as it looks,'' cautions Ann's doctor (Julian Richings), but here it's as easy as a movie can make it. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
I think the screenplay, written by director Isabel Coixet, is shameless in its weepy sentiment. But there is truth here, too, and a convincing portrait of working-class lives. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Sweet and moving, and occasionally irritating, but it's never embarrassing. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Excellent performances from Sarah Polley and Deborah Harry, and a sensitive script from writer-director Isabel Coixet transform what might otherwise have been little more than a disease-of-the-week cable melodrama. Read full review
60
EmpireAnna Smith
Many will love this because it forces them to cry; others may resent it for the same reason. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Asks for sympathy for deplorable behavior. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichael Miller
What's annoying and eventually absurd is writer-director Isabel Coixet's decision to have her heroine keep the diagnosis a secret. Read full review
50
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Ms. Polley is a naturally subtle actress, and part of her appeal lies in an unusual ability to seem at once forthright and enigmatic, but this time she comes off as a bit smug. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
It's hard to take this movie seriously. It's the cinematic equivalent of dotting your i's with a big heart, a very youngish view of life and death in which everything is too neatly wrapped up with a bow. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneKevin M. Williams
The inescapable problem with this film is that everything is precisely as you expect it. And so, cheated out of anything interesting, you just want "My Life Without Me" to be a movie without you. Read full review
50
Washington PostDesson Thomson
The film should at least be wise and three-dimensional enough to see Ann's motivations as a source of mystery as much as heroic self-empowerment. This one-dimensional ennoblement doesn't sit quite right. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Despite several touching scenes, the script comes perilously close to being maudlin and, while competent, Polley doesn't have the flair to make anything special out of her big role. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
A weepie for audiences under the (mistaken) impression that independent movies are always more emotionally honest than Hollywood movies. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
A maudlin hack-job. Read full review
30
SalonCharles Taylor
It's about as phony and manipulative as a movie could be. That Polley seems true every second is maybe the strongest testament yet to her acting. It's exasperating that this movie doesn't have the courage to go places where its actress plainly has the guts to follow. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
In short, this isn't a poignant drama about courage and imagination -- it's a contrived fantasy about courage and imagination. Read full review
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