Heat Magazine - 24-30 November 2001
"Me Without You" ReviewThe plot: Since leaving Brookside, Anna Friel's had awayward film career (Mad Cows, Rogue Trader) but she finally comes up trumps in this comedy drama about two girls whose intense friendship proves destructively suffocating. Beginning in the early 70s with suburban next-door neighbours Holly and Marina pledging to be best pals forever, the film flashes forward to 1978 with the middle-class teenage pair attempting a punk makeover in a desperate bid for street credibility. Next, we catch up with them in 1982 at university in Brighton, with the cracks beginning to show as shy Holly (Dawson's Creek's Michelle Williams) tries to emerge from the shadow of feisty Marina (Friel).
What's right with it?: Friel bravely take the less-sympathetic role, playing the needy friend who disguises her insecurity with bossy self-confidence. Marina's neurosis leads her to acts of pure selfishness that make her hard to like, and it's to Friel's credit that you never quite lose sympathy for the character. Williams also shines in the quieter role of clever, insecure Holly, who secretly yearns for her best mate's sexy older brother Nat (Oliver Milburn). The screenplay manages to be witty without resorting to the fake one-liners of TV sitcom writing: "Dont ever be yourself", Marina counsels Holly in the ways of winning men, "you've got to have a gimmick. How about 'intense and difficult?' You could manage that." Kyle MacLachlan is an amusing cartoon, and nor more, as a pretentious, lascivious college lecturer, and Trudie Styler is scene-stealingly good as Marina's formerly glamorous and now slightly decaying suburban mum. Oh, and the 70s/80s fashion, music and period details will delight anyone old enough to remember the eras.
What's wrong with it?: The film's determination to keep the story going right through to the present - via pregnancies, unsuitable marriages and spectacular must-ups - might ultimately test your patience. It's a given that nice Holly will finally win true happiness with nice Nat, but the film never seems to tire of throwing obstacles in the path towards true love. Couldn't they just, you know, get on with it ?
Length: 107 minutes
Verdict: Me Without You is a joyful and tender movie about female friendship, gowing up and the triumph of love. Seek it out.
- 4 out of 5.