TheBlueHairedLawyer Many reviewers of this film appear to be giving it 1/10 stars based on the grounds that it was unscientific in its portrayal of medical diagnostic procedures (are people seriously that nerdy that they would over-analyze a fictional story to this extent?), that Ann should not have had a fling with another man, and that the film was too pathetic.Yes, this film is about extremely pathetic people, including Ann herself. But this is not a bad thing. Ann, who got knocked up at seventeen, dropped out of high school and works as a janitor, living in a cramped trailer in her mom's backyard, is about as pathetic as they come, yet after she is diagnosed with cancer and told she only has two months to live, her actions touch the lives of everybody she meets. An estranged father who lives in prison. A painfully shy doctor who has the unfortunate task of giving her a death sentence. A woman obsessed with diets who eats like a cow. A man whose wife has just taken off on him and left him with nothing but the bare bones of an apartment building and stacks of used books. Despite Ann being somewhat pretentious and selfish, she does the most selfless thing by distancing her friends and family from having to watch her die in some hospital bed. For anybody who thinks she should've just sucked it up and spent the rest of her days getting tested and treated like an experiment as she wasted away in front of her own husband and two young children, I ask you to contemplate why you think this would have been better for everyone involved. Instead, she's there for her family until her final moments.As for the brief affair with Lee, I really don't think it was about sex. I think she just wanted to know what being with a mature person was like. Her husband, a twenty-four-year-old high school drop-out who goofs around and builds swimming pools for fast cash, loves Ann but is just as inexperienced as she is. Her entire life she's been trapped in that little mobile home with a depressed mother and a jailed father, continuing a trailer trash cycle and never even having the experience to be anything different - and now she'll never have that chance because she's dying. Lee, an older adult who has traveled the world and is an avid reader, is the closest she can get. Although I was slightly angry at her for almost using his fragile state of recent divorce to have another try at romance, I still don't really consider her actions wrong.One of my favorite parts of this film is the sort of unspoken pact she makes with her doctor, who against better judgment befriends her and enjoys her company although she is dying. Dr. Thompson promises to hold onto her numerous cassette tapes of prerecorded birthday messages for her children, as well as photos of her children, messages for her mom, Don and for Lee as well. Even at the end of the film he remains devoted in this, locking himself in his own office in a state of grief before neatly stacking each cassette tape in order by labeled year to give to her kids. Another character whom Ann connects with is a hairdresser who turns out to be very insecure but talented. Together they form a friendship and Ann attempts to beautify herself but only gets as far as fake nails.I think that's the thing about this film, every character is doing something in life that maybe they weren't meant to do or to be. Every character is insecure. Ann was never meant to be a drop-out living in a trailer, dying at a young age. Her mom was never meant to be some chain-smoking baker who gets drunk all the time. Lee was never meant to be divorced and seeking companionship at a seedy laundromat. Dr. Thompson was never meant for the cold, unsympathetic world of medical work. Yet somehow all these characters end up in Ann's life, and somehow they all learn from her.This film as I said is definitely not perfect by any means, nor does it have to be. Personally I find things like Silence of the Lambs to be hugely overrated and stupid, but that's just me I guess. I prefer films about humanity, regardless of a couple of slip-ups in the way a fictional medical procedure is carried out or an affair between two lovers used as a plot device. If you're the type of person who picks through everything you watch with a fine-toothed comb, this isn't the kind of film for you. If not, I recommend it strongly.

tieman64 "It's better to forget, than to remember me and cry." - The Cure Isabel Coixet's "My Life Without Me" stars Sarah Polley as a hard working mother who learns that she has but a few months left to live. Polley keeps her impending death from her kids and husband, and begins instead to write and record a series of notes and tapes for her family. Through this material she hopes to "be with them" long after she has passed away. Polley's impending demise is mirrored to the lives of various other characters, including her own mother. Though these characters are alive, they wade through life like the walking dead, treading water in a world rife with pain, disappointment and morbid suffocation. Elsewhere Polley spends her last months indulging in various experiences, most notably an adulterous love affair with a character played by Mark Ruffalo.Polley and Ruffalo - two underrated actors - are as powerful as they often are, and the film contains a number of neat little moments which are sensitively directed and well acted. The film's overall plot, though, is well worn. It's hard to elevate material like this, or take it interesting, new places. The film's sentimental and predictable and the cast, who are often wonderfully raw, deserve much better.7.5/10 – Worth one viewing.

Esswasim Well yes the movie can be fun to watch but hey what is this director into? A woman with cancer stage 4, well she seems perfectly fine to me in whole movie and in fact very selfishly portrayed character, has a very loving and caring husband and she decides to have sex with other men to know how it feels, and she in fact falls in love with another guy, oh come on she is not a good example, I think if we know we will die in 2 months, the first thing is we will want to be as much good to our family as possible and here we have this young lady betraying her husband which is epic in my opinion, she has 2 lovely daughters a lovely husband and a very decent mother, I think she wants everyone feel the pain or maybe she is too dumb to know that they will feel more pain, the way she recorded all those tapes to remind them of her in future...ROFL I didn't feel any sympathy for her even if she was dying and reason is she started betraying her own family, her husband mainly and her daughters, moreover I wanted her to die faster cuz I was worried what if her husband found out she is doing it with another guy, that would have been disastrous for that poor husband lol, he would have died before her. Anyway I don't know what more to say , ppl may have different opinions but I think any man living would never want such a wife and never show any sympathy to such woman, even if we know there are millions of wives who cheat behind their husbands. It sucks and movie sucks too.

Raul Faust Well, I think I'm the first reviewer that didn't like this film.You know, it is about a young girl who discovers she's gonna die in 2 months and doesn't tell anyone. The writers could have noticed that she didn't change a thing in her behavior, which is extremely improbable. EVERYONE who discovers the death is coming soon tend to enjoy life and be very sad when bed time comes. But in "My Life Without Me", the girl is the same before and after; sad/depressed all the time and has no charisma at all.Something impressing in this movie is that people are talking to each other and all of a sudden one of them leaves the table and say "I have to go". And that's it, no goodbye, no brief period before leaving, they just "have to go". Where does everybody have to go?Also, I don't believe someone who is about to die is capable to keep it as a secret for everyone. This is something you HAVE to share with your friends or family, it's impossible to keep it with you. You want to see people's reaction.Julian Richings is the worst choice to play a doctor ever. He is much better at portraying freak people, he doesn't have a "physician feeling". I expected much more from this movie, it is just a big disappointment to me.