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My Life Without Me
Directed by	Isabel Coixet
Produced by	Esther García Gordon McLennan
Written by	Isabel Coixet based on the book by Nanci Kincaid
Starring	Sarah Polley Amanda Plummer Scott Speedman
Music by	Alfonso Vilallonga
Cinematography	Jean-Claude Larrieu
Editing by	Lisa Robison
Release date(s)	2003
Running time	106 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

My Life Without Me (Mi vida sin mí) is a 2003 film that tells a story of the dying process of a 23 year old woman who has a husband and two daughters. It is based on the book Pretending the Bed Is a Raft by Nanci Kincaid.

The film won many international and festival awards, including:

• the Genie Award (Canada) for Best Actress (Polley)
• the Goya (Spain) for Best Screenplay (Coixet) and Best Song ("Humans Like You" by Chop Suey)

Contents 1 Cast 2 Plot Summary 3 Quotes 4 External links

• Sarah Polley– as Ann
• Amanda Plummer– as Laurie
• Scott Speedman– as Don
• Leonor Watling– as Ann, the Neighbor
• Deborah Harry– as Ann's Mother
• Maria de Medeiros– as The Hairdresser
• Mark Ruffalo– as Lee
• Julian Richings– as Dr. Thompson
• Jessica Amlee– as Penny
• Kenya Jo Kennedy– as Patsy

Ann (Sarah Polley) is a hard-working 23 year old mum with two small daughters, her husband (Scott Speedman) who spends time on and off work, her mother (Deborah Harry) who sees her life as a failure, and her gaoled father whom she has not seen in ten years. She works nights as a janitor in a university she could never afford to attend, she lives in a caravan in her mother’s backyard, and she has no aspirations. After she collapses one day, and goes for a medical check-up, her whole world changes, "your whole life’s been a dream and it’s only now that you’re waking up". A shy doctor tells her the morbid news that she has only a few months to live, but she tells no one, using the cover of "anemia". Ann makes a list of "things to do before I die", things that she always wanted to accomplish but never had the time. Although somewhat burdened with her secret, Ann at the same time has a new sense of control.

"This is you eyes closed out in the rain, you never thought you’d be doing something like this, you never saw yourself as I don’t know how you describe it, one of those people who like looking up at the moon or who spend hours gazing at waves or at sunset, or I guess you know what kind of people I’m talking about, maybe you don’t. Anyway, you kind of like it being like this, being cold and feeling the water seep through your shirt and onto your skin, the feel of the ground going soft beneath your feet. The smell and the sound of the rain hitting the leaves. All the things they talk about in books you haven’t read. This is you, who would have guessed it. You."

"You pray that this will be your life without you. You pray that the girls will love this woman who has the same name as you, and that your husband will end up loving her too. And that they can live in the house next door, and the girls can play dolls in the trailer and barely remember their mother who used to sleep during the day, and take them on raft rides on the bed. You pray that they will have moments of happiness so intense, that all of their problems will seem insignificant in comparison. You don’t know who or what you’re praying to, but you pray. You don’t even regret the life that you’re not going to have… ‘cause by then you’ll be dead. And the dead don’t feel anything… not even regret."

• Official website
• My Life Without Me at the Internet Movie Database