My Life Without Me

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My Life Without Me ★★½ 2003 (R)

Writer/director Coixet delivers a weepy drama about a young, married woman who keeps her impending death a secret from her family. Diagnosed with inoperable ovarian cancer, the happily married 23-year-old Ann (Polley) decides against telling husband Don (Speedman) and their two daughters about her condition. With only a few months to live, Ann draws up a list of things to do before dying, one of which is to really fall in love with another man. She soon finds a cooperative lover in Lee (Ruffalo), who falls for her too. She also tries to set her husband up with a replacement wife, also named Ann (Watling). Despite the far-fetched, soap operatic script and less than sympathetic main character, earnest performances (especially from the likeable Polley) ratchet up the believability factor. 106m/C VHS, DVD . CA SP Sarah Polley, Scott Speedman, Mark Ruffalo, Deborah Harry, Alfred Molina, Leonor Watling, Amanda Plummer, Julian Richings, Maria De Medeiros; D: Isabel Coixet; W: Isabel Coixet; C: Jean-Claude Larrieu; M: Alfonso de Villalonga.