FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: Me Without You [DVD] [2001]

Me Without You [DVD] [2001]
enlarge	Director: Sandra Goldbacher Actors: Anna Friel, Michelle Williams, Ella Jones, Anna Popplewell, Cameron Powrie Studio: Momentum Pictures Category: DVD List Price: ~~£19.99~~ Buy New: £3.62 as of 21/11/2009 16:26 GMT details You Save: £16.37 (82%) New (11) Used (6) from £2.10 Seller: selectcheaper Rating: 6 reviews Sales Rank: 13817 Format: PAL, Widescreen Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language) Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Region: 2 Discs: 1 Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 108 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 EAN: 5060021175601 ASIN: B00006JY2E Theatrical Release Date: November 23, 2001 Release Date: October 14, 2002 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Editorial Reviews: Amazon.co.uk Review Sandra Goldbacher's intense drama of friendship and betrayal IMe Without You/I was not especially liked by UK reviewers, but opened in the US to rave reviews. Carrying the relationship between two teenagers through their student days and into adulthood, it shows the more obviously charismatic Marina (Anna Friel) as parasitic on her more intelligent friend Holly (Michelle Williams) and then utterly devastated when Holly tries to break away (a brief epilogue shows them still involved years later). Best known for her role in IDawson's Creek/I, Michelle Williams (whose English accent is impeccable) gives a finely nuanced performance; Anne Friel runs the gamut from drug-induced stupor to malice to hysteria with a staginess that is only partly the character's. There are solid performances from Trudy Stiler as the neurotic ex-croupier mother who is part of Marina's problem and Kyle McLachlan as the oddly passive lecturer whom both seduce. The film is good on the passage of time--it has a fine eye for the fashion disasters of 1970s to 90s Britain--yet it's somehow disingenuous in its avoidance of emotional subtext. It's overly partial, too: Holly is obviously a stand-in for the writer-director. p BOn the DVD:/B IMe Without Your/I is presented in a widescreen visual ratio of 2.35:1 with Dolby 5.1 digital sound that gives full weight and intensity to a soundtrack which revisits a well-chosen selection of obvious and obscure tracks from the period. It has no extra features. --IRoz Kaveney/I

Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 6 1 2 Next » An example of excellent british film making! July 31, 2003 Candyflower (Kent) 13 out of 14 found this review helpful This has to be one of my favourite films because its so true to life. Anna Friel plays the outgoing and manipulative Marina and her best friend, the shy, passive Holly is played by Michelle Williams who is excellent, even managing a realistic british accent!br The film follows the two girls troubled friendship from the age of ten, going through the boredom of being teenagers, 80s students and through their struggles of merging into 'proper' adults. As the film develops through the 70s and 80s, we see the girls suffercating but intense relationship crush both Holly and Marina, and how outside characters (Kyle Machlachlan and Trudie Styler are both excellent in supporting roles)effect each of them and their friendship in turn. My favourite bit is their student life style which is captured wonderfully, and is exactly true to life. I reccomend this to anyone in need of a decend british film, especially students!! Shock! Decent British film!!!!! October 21, 2002 Jason Parkes (Worcester, UK) 33 out of 40 found this review helpful Me Without You is a film that I felt was more suited to TV when I initially saw it- my major criticism was the scope it attempted to capture from the 1970's to the present day was too vast. I thought that it should have been a TV series like Our Friends in the North. pThis still remains true, though I have softened- as this is a film that stays and resonates with you. Also, it touches on an era in which I have lots of interest- apart from silly list/top ten shows and makes this a film along with Donnie Darko that looks at the 1980's.pThe story is simple- a friendship between two quite different females over many years; we get to see them grow together, grow up and grow apart. The music for this film is fantastic- Wreckless Eric, The Clash, er Barbara Dickson, Depeche Mode, Cowboy Junkies, Nick Drake, Tim Buckley. The highlights for me musically were the scenes in the bedroom to Scritti Politti's The Sweetest Girl and the dance scene between Friel/McLachlan to Cabaret Voltaire's Nag Nag Nag- two of the finest singles ever!pAnna Friel is very good, though has the relatively easy role of playing the fallen/shallow/hedonist girl to the divine Michelle Williams (Prozac Nation, Dawson's Creek) who plays the sensitive writer wallflower. Williams is fantastic here, showing exactly why the writers of the Creek decided to give her character something to do in the last 1 1/2 series of Dawson's (nice to escape Katie Holmes gamine gurning Van Der Beek's god damn worthiness). Williams gets the British accent just right, showing Gwyneth Paltrow how it should be done. Williams gives a fearless performance that is more common to European cinema (which I suppose this qualifies as)pKyle Machlachlan and Trudie Styler are good in supporting roles and the period detail is great (as is the use of rain in the Brighton scenes). Nice to see an interesting post-modern joke regarding Tarkovsky's Nostalgia (1983), where Williams' character tells McLachlan's that "nostalgia is my favourite Tarkovsky"- in 1982! Anyone who has attended university will be familiar with the talk of Derrida and Foucault, the uni lifestyle is caught wonderfully- improving on that in Mike Leigh's Career Girls (which is set in a similar period). The end feels a little rushed, blame this on the constraints of cinema.pMe Without You is a charming coming of age (and more ) film, charting a notion of fraternity between two girls. Sadly it was overlooked at the cinema, seems that we love our nostalgia on TV but not in the cinema. This is an excellent film that you will want to come back to, in a way the female equivalent of Withnail I or Jules et Jim/Anne Muriel without the tragedy. Ditto Mina Tannenbaum or Lawn Dogs. The most shocking thing about this film is that it is British- this usually means homoerotic gangster films in the Tarantino mode, terrible horror films, tedious slabs of populism or unfunny comedies. Pity that this wasn't marketed as heavily as say Bend it like Beckham, as I think it would have found a strong audience (I was the only person in the cinema). Here it has a second chance on video and like a film like Beautiful Girls I hope it finds an audience there. I cannot stop watching this film. August 9, 2003 M. Swann (London, UK) 13 out of 16 found this review helpful As a student, I should be spending my life watching Kilroy, Tricia and This Morning. Surely!? Well, no, actually. This year I have mostly been watching this, frankly, incredible film. Everytime I watch it, I understand more about the complexities of Marina and Holly's friendship - a first watch will only allow you a surface view. Also, by watching it more than once, your understanding of Nat and Holly's relationship also develops. As well as gaining a deeper insight into the relationships within the film my mind does do the whole shallow girlie thing as I love love LOVE the clothes, especially Marina's pink dress which she wears to seduce her lecturer...never worked out why she wore her pants over her tights tho (anyone else?!). pI just love this film. On first watching it seems mostly bleak and helpless - it captures the frustrations of growing up in Suburbia perfectly (perhaps that's why I like this film, as it echoes my own experiences), but it is actually a beautful coming of age story. I can see parts of myself in both Holly and Marina; they're two extremes on the same spectrum and I think that is why this film works. I just love it, and I can watch it over and over and not get bored - and for me, that is saying something! Bittersweet movie about friendship, growing up and identity December 1, 2005 5 out of 6 found this review helpful This is a film that I picked up cheap ex-rental and then bought again for the commentary track. This is a keeper and one that I can come back to again and again.pThis movie is very much about friendship and definitely has the bitter with the sweet. We see the good and the bad of what the friendship brings to Holly and Marina. I like the theme of identity also and the way that they each experiment with trying on bits of the other#x27;s basic personality. pBeing 38 this movie is nice to be nostalgiac about, seeing the changing fashions and the music. I also like watching the characters growing up.pLast but not least I love the acting in this movie. Not having watched Dawson#x27;s creek much, Michelle Williams is a revelation. Her accent is convincing even though she#x27;s American and both she and Friel really put across the emotions of the characters so well.pIf you like the themes of friendship, personal identity and growing up then this will not disappoint. Other friendship movies that you may not have heard of and that I heartily recommend are My First Mister (American independent film) and Love Me If You Dare (French). "I don't know who I am when we're not us. There's no me without you" January 20, 2008 cathy earnshaw (Berlin, Germany) This 2001 film from British director Sandra Goldbacher is a coming-of-age story about intense female teenage bonds and what happens to them on the road to adulthood. Marina (a splendid Anna Friel) and Holly (Michelle Williams) are in young years already fervently loyal best friends who live next door to each other. Perhaps as a reaction to this over-intensity and partly due to different parental backgrounds, their personalities develop into near opposites: Marina is a self-consciously wild party-girl and eclectic dresser who dabbles with heroin and casual sex, whilst Holly is a Sylvia Plath reading intellectual, a steadier, introverted being who feels mousy and unsexy (her domineering mother is shown telling her "There are pretty people, and there are clever people," as if the two were mutually exclusive). Marina deliberately tries to sabotage the burgeoning love between her brother Nat (Oliver Milburn) and Holly, tearing up a letter intended for her, and manipulatively telling him of Holly's affair with Daniel, their American lit-crit professor. Predictably jealous of Holly finding favour with Daniel (Kyle MacLachlan) - both of whom are Jewish and intellectual - Marina seduces him and tries to impress him by name-dropping Ingmar Bergman. Needless to say, the friendship between the two young women quickly becomes toxic and neurotic as Marina behaves increasingly possessive and histrionic, interpreting Holly's growing automony as a rejection of the friendship itself. br / br /It is a fascinating topic and one to which many women can relate. However, there are a few facets that forestall 'Me Without You' from being a great film. The director drew inspiration from an osmotically close bond she experienced as a young teenager which petered out, but was not reflected upon by the two in adulthood (at least not together). In the film, you feel that the difficulties are dramatically presented, but without them being questioned or actively dealt with by the protagonists. Holly fails to confront Marina with the truth of her behaviour, tacitly tolerating her unspoken dominance in the friendship. For her part, Marina also seems to be unable to mature beyond competitivism and rivalry with Holly. This prevents growth and development in character, in the light of which the ending seems unsatisfactorily positive. The viewer is left wondering when Holly will give her quiet suffering a voice and set Marina clear limits in their contact. Also, the script (written by Goldbacher and Laurence Coriat) occasionally lets the film down. The expression "It's so street!", for example, is used so often it grates; the funky jargon of the period could have been used much more liberally and subtly and to better effect. The soundtrack also comes across as a little 'stuck on' and predictable: a Joy Division poster hangs on the wall, records of The Clash, Adam Ant and Depeche Mode spin on the turntables and an attempted suicide (by Marina's mother, deftly performed by Trudie Styler) is accompanied by the music of Nick Drake, himself a famous suicide. br / br /It's nevertheless worth watching, especially for those who feel nostalgic for 1970s and 1980s fashion and music and for those who have experienced a close, deep friendship drifting into a stifling and over-dependent osmosis. br / br /Also recommended: My Summer of Love, The Page Turner, Look at Me, Gespenster (a German film) Showing reviews 1-5 of 6 1 2 Next »

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