Customer Reviews

Me Without You

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Worth it to witness the hard, ugly truth of friends who love each other and will spoil everything for one another to prove it. Also worth it for the well-crafted acting and very accessible script. However, for me, this tale of friendship became the mere backdrop for a surprisingly romantic story of longing and disappointment.

Michelle Williams does a remarkably subtle job throughout (I didn't expect this performance from her), and she is able to convey her character's infatuation for Marina's older brother with a truth never seen in the lovesick characters of Dawson's Creek. But the true revelation here is Oliver Milburn, who adds layer after layer to the cool but kind Nat. It is no wonder that Williams' Holly can't let go of her crush on this young man; in the skilled hands of Milburn, Nat becomes a "real boy" and is one of the most endearing "objects of affection" that I have seen in the movies in quite some time.

All performances are wonderful, with some small, very funny moments that can be easily missed if you aren't paying attention (I caught many on my second viewing).

Why not 5 stars? Well, I must confess that the ending left me wanting more. Also, don't expect extra's on this DVD. Except for the typical scene selections, subtitles (which was actually helpful - there is a lot of whispering in this movie) and 3 previews, there is nothing really added to this DVD.

This excellent film follows two girls who have been friends from childhood. They've lived next door to each other and are in and out of each others' houses daily. Holly is a sky, bookish, Jewish girl whose mother 'comforts' her by saying "Some girls are pretty, and others are smart." Thanks, Mom. Marina, OTOH, is a knockout, has glamorous but unstable and unreliable parents, and a brother whom Holly secretly lusts after. As they grow, their friendship remains the one constant in their world - but one does wonder that it takes so long for Holly to realize that Marina is just using her and being very mean about it in the process.
Without either knowing (but of course all is eventually revealed), they have an affair with the same college professor, but throughout, there's this underlying attraction of Holly to Marina's brother, Nat, even after he's married a French actress.
Great flick with a touching ending. Terrific acting by everyone.

I saw this movie on cable and thought it was good. Focusing on the friendship between Miranda and Holly, the movie made me think of what friendship what is about. It's about caring, loving, struggling, coping, changing, etc. The girls were different but remained close. Their friendship at times was rocky because Marina was controlling and Holly was reserved and held herself back. Both have an affair with the professor which doesn't go well. He's married. Then there is Marina's older brother Oliver. He and Holly are in love but they can't be together. He marries a French girl but is she the one for him? It is when Miranda finally falls apart, Holly can only take but more than she can.
Their friendship had been through some odds and ends. One should let the other go so that one could make her own decisions and see what is in store for her. It could have made them or break them.

Me Without You is a great movie about the friendship between two young girls;it deals with the dependency of one on the other, and with jealousy and manipulation. Michelle Williams gives one of her best performances in one of her early movies. Anna Friel is also excellent,and the movie is a great woman's movie without being a chick flick.

Un film magnifique sur l'amitié "entre filles". Très touchant, très vrai.
Réalisé avec sensibilité et humour.
Les acteurs y sont tous formidables mais... mention toute spéciale pour Michelle Williams qu'on a pu découvrir plus tard dans "Brokeback Mountain".

When you live in a suburb of London, in the mid 1970s, your best friend is whomever lives nearby. Such is the case of Holly (Michelle Williams), a bookish and sweetly obedient girl and Marina (Anna Friel), a wild child of a wild mom (Trudie Styler), who helps mold and shape the thinking of her more reserved neighbor. Add in Holly's crush on Marina's brother (Oliver Millburn), toss in some drugs, cigarettes, and a college professor (Kyle MacLachlan) when they go off to University and you have a brilliant character study, set against the New Wave 80s, and into the 90s.

Holly must deal with control issues from all around her: first her stodgy parents, then dodgy Marina, who has her own agenda, even as she is trying to sabotage Holly's.

It's a taut, real story, with authentic performances straight through. The questions it raises about what friends do for and to each other are explored, and the dynamic of who "runs" a relationship is a key element to the tale.

It's a wonderful story, with a brilliant soundtrack! Highly recommended!

I loved this movie when I saw it in the theatre
and couldn't wait for it to be released on DVD.
But don't believe them when they say "widescreen"
I guess it is in a sorta fakey-letterbox way,
but it's obviously not the film's true aspect ratio.
The opening credits are, but it promptly switches to the disapointing black bars that really just annoy me more,
because it still almost has to pan&scan in some scenes.
Either "format to fit my screen"
or give me the movie the way it was shot.
Not this crappy inbetween cop-out, damnit.

Other than that, the film is great.

This small, understated film explores the agony and ecstasy of being a friend, tracking the relationship between two British girls, Marina (Anna Friel) and Holly (Michelle Williams of "Dawson's Creek" fame), as they find their way through the 70's and 80's. It is an unflinching, non-moralizing account of two people who grow up and grow apart but who can't let each other go.

Early on, Holly's mother says, "There are pretty people, and there are clever people," and it's clear that while Marina falls into the pretty category, Holly thinks the only thing she can be is clever. Marina's glamourous, party girl behavior belies her deep insecurities and neediness, which also prompt her passive-aggressive behavior toward Holly, all attempts to maintain control of a friend who needs nothing more than to break away from her. Holly also carries a torch for Marina's brother Nat (Oliver Milburn) who admits the feeling is mutual, but the timing is never right. It's clear that while the girls were inseparable as children, as young adults, Holly develops a personality and individuality all her own while Marina can't separate her identity from her friend.

The film drags in sections and often beats you over the head with the points it attempts to make, but all in all it is an enjoyable little movie. Williams handles the English accent remarkably well and shows that she is probably the most gifted of the actors to emerge from "Dawson's Creek." Friel may get the fireworks, but as Holly, Williams ultimately gets the more interesting character. It is also amusing to witness the changes in fashion and music as the characters go from 1973 to 2001.

It may not be the most original subject matter, but anyone who's ever had a friend would find it difficult not to relate to this film.

I saw this on the big screen 3 years ago and loved it. It was warm, funny, well acted, wonderfully filmed and compelling. I was really looking forward to getting the dvd. I couldn't find it anywhere locally except on Amazon. Luckily I was able to rent it before buying it. The widescreen aspect ratio of the original theatrical cut was 2.35:1 but the dvd transfer is only 1.85:1, however the opening credits is in 2.35:1!? The rest of the movie is cropped off at 1.85:1 and it looks terrible. Its a huge dissappointment not to have the entire picture on the dvd.

This movie was absolutely amazing for me. I myself had a very similar relationship to the one that Holly and Marina share. It is a movie that I related to in a very personal way, and it opened my eyes to a lot of things that I myself had ignored about the reality of friendship, especially close friendships. It's a very very touching movie that digs deeply into the way people relate to eachother and how we grow in relation to our friendships. It is one of the best movies I have ever seen and I think that everyone should watch is at least once.