The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
My Life Without Me
Drama · Romance · 2003
A fatally ill mother with only two months to live creates a list of things she wants to do before she dies without telling her family of her illness.
Movie details
My Life Without Me
“What you are… is what you leave behind.”
2003 Drama · Romance 1h 46m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.1 / 10
Community rating
A fatally ill mother with only two months to live creates a list of things she wants to do before she dies without telling her family of her illness.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over My Life Without Me?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
The Souvenir
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Wander Darkly
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New parents Adrienne and Matteo are forced to reckon with trauma amidst their troubled relationship. They must revisit the memories of their past and unravel haunting truths in order to face their uncertain future.
Palm Trees and Power Lines
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Seventeen-year-old Lea spends her summer break tanning in her backyard, and drifting between tiptoeing around her needy mother, and aimlessly trailing her best friend and boys from school. This monotony is interrupted by a chance encounter with Tom, a seductive man twice her age who promises an alternative to Lea's unsatisfying adolescent life.
The Last Tycoon
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Monroe Stahr, a successful movie producer, pursues a beautiful and elusive young woman — all the while working himself to death.
Stealing Home
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Billy Wyatt, a former high school and minor-league baseball player, receives a telephone call from his mother revealing that his former child-sitter, and later in his teens, his first love, Katie Chandler, has died. Wyatt returns home to deal with this tragedy, reminiscing over his childhood growing up with his father, Katie, and best friend Alan Appleby.
Passion of Mind
Drama · 2000
A psychological romantic thriller where fantasy and reality become indistinguishable for a woman leading a double life in her dreams.
One True Thing
Drama · 1998
A career woman reassesses her parents' lives after she is forced to care for her cancer-stricken mother.
Elena Undone
Drama · 2010
The wife of a pastor who preaches against homosexuality embarks on an affair with a female writer.
The Burning Plain
Drama · 2008
A trailer is burning in the middle of a plain. The bodies of two adulterous lovers are found. Scenes from both families, before and after the dramatic events, suggest an unusual connection between them. But what is their secret?
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Isabel Coixet
Written by
Isabel Coixet
Sarah Polley
Ann
Amanda Plummer
Laurie
Scott Speedman
Don
Mark Ruffalo
Lee
Leonor Watling
Neighbor Ann
Debbie Harry
Ann's Mother
Maria de Medeiros
Hairdresser
Court is in session
Put My Life Without Me on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.