My Life Without Me (2003)

On receipt of news of terminal illness, there are perhaps four key choices that any of us would have to make:

1. On receipt of such news, in the short term, how would we choose to respond, say, by going to pieces or by remaining calm?
2. Who, if anyone, would we choose to share the news with? Family? Friends?
3. How would we choose to spend our remaining days? Would we spend our time putting our affairs in order or, exploiting a release from future consequences, throw caution to the wind and fill our time with wild debauchery?
4. Where would we choose to die?

"My Life Without Me" is the story of Ann (Sarah Polley), a young Canadian mother of two living in straitened circumstances in a mobile trailer home in her mother's (Deborah Harry) back yard, who goes to the doctor with symptoms of early pregnancy (nausea, stomach cramps and so on) only to learn that she has an inoperable tumour and has at most two or three months left to live. If this sounds like the premise of a traditional weepy, a sentimental drama "based on a true story", well, certainly for Ann the stakes could not be any higher. There is strong emotional content in the film, but the emotions are true emotions, and muted more often than amplified, and the high quality of the acting and direction lifts the story above clichéd dramatics to a level of apparent realism and authenticity.

In response to the news of her imminent death, rather than going all to pieces, Ann responds in an admirably level-headed way. Seeking to maximise the time she has left, she makes out a list of things to do before she dies. It is the nature of this "To Do" list, and the other choices she makes in response to the news that make this story compelling, particularly given the particular circumstances of her life, which emerge during the course of the film.

The lynchpin of the film is the performance of Polley, and she is totally believable in the role, portraying a young woman of intelligence, courage, determination and heart. She is so good with the girls who play her daughters (Jessica Amlee, Kenya Jo Kennedy) that it's hard to believe she is not their mother in real life. The supporting cast is uniformly good: Julian Richings as the doctor, Scott Speedman and especially Mark Ruffalo, respectively, Ann's husband and Ann's admirer, Deborah Harry and Alfred Molina as Ann's parents, Amanda Plummer, Leonor Watling, and Maria de Medeiros as Ann's friends, neighbours, co-workers, acquaintances.

The script is intelligent and the direction is unostentatious. The story is based on the book "Pretending the Bed Is a Raft" by Nanci Kincaid, and the scene where Anne acts out with the girls on the bed being on a raft, beset by dangers of different kinds, is a wonderful scene, one that as a parent I envy, like the scene in Crash (2004) where the admirably resourceful Daniel (Michael Peña) calms his daughter's fears of neighbourhood drive-by shootings with the invention of an invisible bullet-proof fairy cloak.

References

• Wikipedia: Crash (2004 film)

---

• Director: Isabel Coixet
• Writers: Isabel Coixet, Nanci Kincaid
• Starring: Sarah Polley, Scott Speedman, Mark Ruffalo, Deborah Harry, Amanda Plummer, Leonor Watling, Maria de Medeiros, Julian Richings, Alfred Molina

---

• Rating: Full price
• When seen: 17 Aug 2011
• Where seen: Home
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

Written in WriteRoom, formatted using HyperEdit, posted from my MacBook Pro

Away From Her (2006)

Sometimes you have to let go of what you can't live without.

"Away From Her" is the writing and directorial feature film debut of the multi-talented Canadian actress (writer, director, singer) Sarah Polley, so good in Doug Liman's ensemble black comedy "Go" (1999) and Vincenzo Natali's recent SF fantasy horror "Splice" (2009).

This film is a remarkably accomplished first feature, with a suspenseful story and beautifully judged performances by the main actors. It tells the story of how a retired university professor (Gordon Pinsent) and his wife (Julie Christie) cope with Christie's incipient Alzheimer's disease. As Christie's character, clearly possessing a strong legacy of physical fitness, presence of mind and social adroitness, starts to lose her mental faculties, so far as to endanger her own safety, the couple is faced with unpleasant choices.

The plot develops in directions that are unexpected but that significantly advance the story, severely testing the strength of Christie's husband's love. The plot is cleverly structured, interleaving events separated in time to build to a satisfying if not long-lasting end. Although the subject matter sounds depressing, ultimately, the film leaves the viewer not depressed but moved.

Christie is fantastic in the lead role, conveying from the outset, through body language and vocal delivery, a person of exceptional grace and sensibility, without which husband Pinsent's actions would be without credibility. Pinsent, Dukakis and the other members of the cast are very good in supporting roles.

Produced by Atom Egoyan, who directed Polley in "The Sweet Hereafter" (1997), for me this is a more accessible, more satisfying experience, and I look forward to more by film-maker Sarah Polley.

• Rating: Full price
• When seen: 20 Mar 2011
• Where seen: Home
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

Posted using Blogo from my MacBook Pro

Amendments: Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.

The Sweet Hereafter (1997)

Sometimes courage comes from the most surprising places.

There is a tragedy at the centre of this film involving the children of a town in British Columbia, Canada, teased out little by little until the final reveal. We learn of it first through a clever plot device in which Mitchell Stephens (Ian Holmes), a lawyer, canvasses support among the parents for a group lawsuit. As Stephens tours the town, we too are taken inside people's homes, and more importantly inside the town's rumour mill. Through Stephens's eyes and ears, we gain insight into the dark and dirty secrets of the townspeople's lives.

Holmes' divorced lawyer is himself in a troubled relationship with his grownup daughter, a long-time drug addict. Present-day scenes of their painful talks by phone contrast with idyllic scenes from the past, but also one incident where he literally held his daughter's innocent young life in his hands.

Another access point to the story is young Nicole Burnell's (Sarah Polley) narration of the traditional tale of The Pied Piper of Hamlyn, expressed in the form of a poem. This poem, very poignantly, stands as a metaphor for what has happened to the town and the town's children, including Nicole, especially Nicole. Almost subliminally, at first, the poem extends the story and mutates it in unexpected directions, to more closely mirror the aftermath of the town's tragedy.

A key reason for choosing to see this film was that the title came up when I did a search on Sarah Polley, the wonderfully bloody-minded star of Go (1999). She was good, but for me the standout performance here is that of Holmes.

Another reason for choosing to see this film is that it was well spoken of by Adam Kempenaar and Matty Robinson on Filmspotting.net, but having seen it now, I can't quite decide what to make of it. It is a serious film for an intelligent, adult audience, well acted, well shot, and with several very poignant and/or disturbing story-lines running through it. But what the film is about, what the underlying message is, what all the parts add up to, I'm not quite sure, and so, I'm a bit disappointed. (Surely the film's take-home message can't be: "Spare your children from the miseries of adult life. If you have the chance, kill them now!")

The reason for my confusion could be down to the fractured narrative structure of the film. Alternatively, it might be a problem of perception, i.e. my fault. Rather than seeing the film straight through, due to force of circumstance, I saw it in two sittings, and this might have diluted the impact. But, until I see it again and maybe gain greater insight, I can't give it more than a high matinee.

Hmn, now reading on IMDB.com/title/tt0120255/ I find that Matthew Tichenor HAS made sense of the film: "The community is paralyzed by its anger and cannot let go. All but one young girl... who finds the courage to lead the way to the sweet hereafter."

• Rating: High matinee
• When seen: 7 Mar 2011
• Where seen: Home
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

Posted using Blogo from my MacBook Pro

Amendments: Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.

Splice (2009)

She's Not Human... Not Entirely.

This film updates the Frankenstein trope of man creating life to the present day, and poses the question of what would happen if instead of one man, the creators were a childless husband and wife team, incubating the monster from a foetus in an artificial womb. This is an interesting angle, allowing the film-makers to address issues relating to parenthood - especially, Polley's character being the prime mover, motherhood - and allowing for an unusually wide gamut of responses, ranging from revulsion to devotion.

A neat plot device allows for a telescoping of time, and the story develops swiftly.

The story, in toto, is clearly quite fantastic. In order to keep the audience on board, the characters of the protagonists must be credible enough to drive the plot forward in an apparently inevitable succession, as inevitable as a line of falling dominoes. This is achieved pretty well, partly by scripting in certain character attributes, partly through the great casting of beak-nosed thin-as-a-rake Adrian Brody as nerdy scientist, partly through the strong grounded but intense presence of Sarah Polley, whose character is the prime mover behind most of the key plot points.

For me, the actor Sarah Polley was in fact the main attraction. In the film Go, she was really something special, giving a brave bloody-minded completely unglamorous performance, the standout performance of the film. Her IMDB entry says she is "[b]lessed with an extremely expressive face that enables directors to minimize dialog due to her uncanny ability to suggest a character's thoughts..." Exactly: her intelligence shines through.

The monster, when it comes, is very well realised, especially later on in the film. This is a crucial point: if the monster lacks credibility, the film crashes. Fortunately, the FX are good, and the portrayal of the monster is one of the high points of the whole film.

Others have criticised the finale for being too action-oriented, and dumbing down from the intelligence of the majority of the film. Maybe, but the film's final coda is pretty smart.

• Rating: Full price
• When seen: 18 Feb 2011
• Where seen: Home
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

Posted using Blogo from my MacBook Pro

Amendments: Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.