Me Without You (2001)

66% of critics liked it
(65 reviews)
77% of users liked it
(6,536 ratings)

The joys and horrors of female friendship are explored in writer/director Sandra Goldbacher's Me Without You. Bold, brash, and fashionable Marina (played by Anna Popplewell as a child, and Anna Friel as a teen and adult) comes from a broken home. Her mother, Linda (Trudie Styler, who executive… More The joys and horrors of female friendship are explored in writer/director Sandra Goldbacher's Me Without You. Bold, brash, and fashionable Marina (played by Anna Popplewell as a child, and Anna Friel as a teen and adult) comes from a broken home. Her mother, Linda (Trudie Styler, who executive produced Guy Ritchie's first two films, and is also Sting's wife) is a hip young divorcée who apologizes every time she yells at her children. Holly (Ella Jones as a child, Michelle Williams of Dawson's Creek and Dick as a teen and adult) is a timid bookworm, mildly ashamed of her Jewishness, and easily goaded into more outrageous behavior by Marina. Holly's mother (Deborah Findlay) tells her early on not to expect too much from men. She helps lower her daughter's expectations by telling her, "Some people are pretty people, and some are clever people, which is more important than looks." As girls in the early '70s, Marina and Holly form a pact to become "Harina," inseparable best friends. Next-door neighbors, they are never apart for long. But Holly harbors a secret crush on Marina's older brother, Nat (Oliver Milburn), and when the girls are teens, and Marina finds out about Holly's feelings, she does her best to keep the two apart. In college, when Holly bonds with a lit-crit professor, Daniel (Kyle Maclachlan), over Andrei Tarkovsky and Ingmar Bergman, Holly feels compelled to sabotage their budding relationship, by seducing Daniel first. Eventually, Nat, despite his lingering fondness for Holly, gets seriously involved with a French actress, Isabel (Marianne Denicourt). As the girls get older, their differences become more apparent to Holly, and she begins to question their friendship. The film covers three decades, with songs and costumes appropriate to each era. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 48 min.
Directed By: Sandra Goldbacher
Written By: Sandra Goldbacher, Laurence Coriat
Genres: Drama, Comedy

In Theaters: Mar 8, 2002 Wide
On DVD: Jun 17, 2003
Studio: Independent Distribution Partn

Critic Reviews

Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic
Although the film deserves some points for trying to describe the intensity of best-friendship between girls, it fails to make them interesting people.
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post
Feels like a late-baby-boomer family album.
Stephen Hunter, Washington Post
Both illuminating and dispiriting.
Ty Burr, Boston Globe
You can't ignore the film's pungency as a cultural document and as a heartfelt testimony to the power struggles of best mates.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Me Without You has a bracing truth that's refreshing after the phoniness of female-bonding pictures like Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
Lou Carlozo, Chicago Tribune
There is no substitute for on-screen chemistry, and when Friel pulls the strings that make Williams sink into melancholia, the reaction in Williams is as visceral as a gut punch.
Marcy Dermansky, About.com
It is always disappointing to me when I want to fall desperately in love with a film and can't.
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
finely crafted, finely written, exquisitely performed
KJ Doughton, Film Threat
A journey spanning nearly three decades of bittersweet camaraderie and history, in which we feel that we truly know what makes Holly and Marina tick, and our hearts go out to them as both continue to negotiate their imperfect, love-hate relationship.
Jeffrey Bruner, Des Moines Register
The story and the friendship proceeds in such a way that you're watching a soap opera rather than a chronicle of the ups and downs that accompany lifelong friendships.

Read all 10 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

paul s

Needful Things... I mean, Me Without You, juggles several themes without a catastrophy - does this make for great entertainment? Not necessarily, though there is certainly enough here to mull over. The "story" involves two young girls; next door neighbors who probably,… More
Needful Things... I mean, Me Without You, juggles several themes without a catastrophy - does this make for great entertainment? Not necessarily, though there is certainly enough here to mull over. The "story" involves two young girls; next door neighbors who probably, if they weren't next door neighbors, would not have connected. In one corner you have Holly, the product of a stable Jewish family, who has been told since a toddler that she has brains, not beauty. In the other, you have her opposite, Marina, from a broken family whose mother instills the virtue of beauty. Once the two main charactors are introduced you get to live with them for the next 30 years via a series of vignettes that, taken seperatly, are often flat and uninvolving, but as a whole take on new life and direction. While the early part of the film wallows in pathos and boredom, there is a much deeper subtext that makes this film watchable. I made the lil joke about needful things, because that's what all the charactors are, especially Marina. Whether it's because of her father's rejection, or her mother's teachings about beauty and attention being the true way to wealth and happiness, she not only needs the spotlight all the time, but perceives that she needs ANYTHING that anyone else might desire as well. So, she takes anything that Holly may want, including men. It's easy to understand why Marina needs Holly, since she's such a Diva and always needs applause and attention, but why does Holly tolerate Marina? Is it because Marina offers some sense of adventure and wonder that her own bookish life fails to provide? Or is it, in her case, a true sense of kinship and the bond formed by lonliness? These themes are all interesting, but it's subtext and not the crux of the film, which seriously meanders as it tells it's story of the two girls and those around them (particularly Mirina's older brother, who a young Holly has a crush on and later.... well, let's just say there's lot's going on). I could have done without much of the period effects - too much of the disco scene - oh, look at the gay guy doing a fan dance - and other superflous scenes drawn simply to impart a sense of the era. I also found the drug party scene to be rather pointless, except to perhaps give an underpinning to the main charactors. Further scenes also left me underimpressed, though they gave me ample time to comtemplate the underlying stuff I've already discussed. I also felt that the final scene where Holly has finally had enough of Marina's needs to be a bit melodramatic - not from Holly of course, but Marina's blathering soul sucking need and then her subsequent emotional breakdown... it just played slightly over the top and false. But then the film redeems itself with a very nice closing scene 10 years later - the girls are back together, out in the backyard watching their own two children, both girls, cavorting about. Without saying anything the film say volumes as it freeze frames on the next generation. The meaning is evident, and the cycle of need continues.
♥˩ƳИИ &

Cast: Michelle Williams, Anna Friel, Oliver Milburn, Kyle MacLachlan, Trudie Styler, Marianne Denicourt, Steve John Shepherd, Allan Corduner, Nicky Henson, Deborah Findlay Directed by: Sandra Goldbacher Summary: In 1970s London, two young girls, Holly (Michelle Williams) and… More
Cast: Michelle Williams, Anna Friel, Oliver Milburn, Kyle MacLachlan, Trudie Styler, Marianne Denicourt, Steve John Shepherd, Allan Corduner, Nicky Henson, Deborah Findlay Directed by: Sandra Goldbacher Summary: In 1970s London, two young girls, Holly (Michelle Williams) and Marina (Anna Friel), grow up next door to each other, share intimacies and survive mutual traumas. Their lives are completely intertwined, and they make a pact of eternal friendship they don't ever plan to break. But as they progress through adolescence and young adulthood in the turbulent 1980s, their friendship and resolve are tested. My Thoughts: "It's really surprising how much I not only enjoyed this film, but how much I related to it. Me and my bestie have much of the same relationship as Holly and Marina. It's a gals, gals movie. Not much for the guys. But it's a great film that should be seen even if its about a couple of best-friends staring two girls. I was surprised that I liked it, because most best-friend films are full of bubblegum bullshit. This film felt like it was a very honest and real portrayal of a friendship/sisterhood. Love Michelle Williams. Her and Anna Friel where great together. Thought they were both believable as besties. Will definitely watch it again."
Anthony L

This film drags without reaching any real conclusion. The relationships are unconvincing and the acting questionable. Michelle Williams is quite good but Anna Friel is quite annoying, although I guess her character is supposed to be to a point. 20 or so years pass within seconds… More
This film drags without reaching any real conclusion. The relationships are unconvincing and the acting questionable. Michelle Williams is quite good but Anna Friel is quite annoying, although I guess her character is supposed to be to a point. 20 or so years pass within seconds without so much as a haircut, so it?s also a little confusing at times. Not a total waste of time but not great either.
Leigh R

Total chaos. It was alright...
Joseph E

Seriously? What a story! What an awfully bad execution of that story!~
Daniel P

Proof that British cinema is capable of producing something other than stuffy romantic comedies or hackneyed Gangster flicks, Me Without You is an assured, compassionate, involving and perceptive film. The title is perfect - at once somehow ambivalent, poetic and… More
Proof that British cinema is capable of producing something other than stuffy romantic comedies or hackneyed Gangster flicks, Me Without You is an assured, compassionate, involving and perceptive film. The title is perfect - at once somehow ambivalent, poetic and eloquent, with directing, writing and acting to match. The film tells the story from childhood, through adolescence and early adulthood of two girls who have a friendship that is supportive and strong as well as suffocating and destructive - imbued with jealousy as well as tenderness. Holly (Michelle Williams) is the mousy, Jewish girl with a love for brooding and inner emoting, and a mother who essentially tells her she is clever but plain. Living next door is Marina (Anna Friel), extravert, flirty, looking to experience life, and with a mother who only eats party food, drinks cocktails at all hours of the day and talks frankly about her sexual life (very similar to Rayanne's mother from TV series My So Called Life, which this films shares some similarity to). The girls admire each other, and envy each other, not just each other's characteristics but their personalities and upbringings. Michelle Williams (who has a not-quite-right English accent, but it's consistent and somehow suits the character) is absolutely superb as Holly. She shines in many scenes, particularly when trying, and failing, to express herself adequately - she is certainly a very gifted actress. Marina, potentially an incredibly unlikeable character, is made sympathetic and real thanks to very good writing - we can see how her manipulation is actually eating her up inside as she slowly hates herself more and more - and Anna Friel's brilliant performance highlights the truth that sometimes friends do awful things to each other. I was becoming exhausted emotionally near the end and was worried about how the film would wrap up, but, save for a misjudged final glimpse into the future which should have been left as a deleted scene, the film's very best sequence (involving a New Year's game) is one of the last. Very highly recommended. Oh and the soundtrack is perfect! "Where are you going?" "I don't know." "...Can I come?"
Lea L

great film.. michelle and anna are great together..
Emily B

An intense film about friendship. The performances are great by both Anna Friel as the controlling Marina and by Michelle Williams as her mistreated friend Holly (although that English accent slipped a few times). I loved how the film moves through the decades (we are treated to a… More
An intense film about friendship. The performances are great by both Anna Friel as the controlling Marina and by Michelle Williams as her mistreated friend Holly (although that English accent slipped a few times). I loved how the film moves through the decades (we are treated to a great soundtrack and a nostalgic look at the 70s/80s.) It could of done without the final scene though.
Leo L

This is an all-time favorite movie of mine! It is about a remarkable growth of friendship through time, and beautifully captured through the trials and tribulations of Holly and Marina. The two met as children living next door to each other, and quickly becoming best friends doing… More
This is an all-time favorite movie of mine! It is about a remarkable growth of friendship through time, and beautifully captured through the trials and tribulations of Holly and Marina. The two met as children living next door to each other, and quickly becoming best friends doing just about everything together. The path into adolescence leaves the two dealing with the onset of emotional disasters in various relationships and embarking into new adventures, or lack of. Although Marina is highly self-indulgent and takes Holly's friendship for granted at every opportunity, this leaves Holly sadly living in the shadow of Marina's misadventures and pining for the love of Marina's older brother. Despite having a cruel friend, it is Holly that truly shines. As adults, Holly is fed up with all the mistreatments, past and present, she then realizes it is more than just about self-worthiness and acceptance but about separating herself from Marina altogether in order to have her own life. Great cast! Michelle Williams and Anna Friel are a great combination. Trudie Styler is brilliant. Absolutely love Oliver Milburn in this one! Phenomenal music!! Gotta love Echo & the Bunnymen, Cowboy Junkies, Depeche Mode, The Clash, etc. Definitely worthy.