In 1973, Holly and Marina are best friend neighbors. Holly is from a stable Jewish family while Marina's pilot father is rarely around. In 1978, Holly (Michelle Williams) and Marina (Anna Friel) are desperate to grow up. Holly is infatuated with Marina's brother Nat while Marina's parents are getting divorced. Marina is angry that Holly slept with Nat and tears up his letter to Holly. In 1982, the girls are together in university and Nat comes to visit. Holly is sleeping with her professor (Kyle MacLachlan) but she and Nat spends the night together. Marina continues to sabotage Holly with Nat and sleeps with the professor herself. Eventually Nat announces that he's marrying Isabel breaking Holly's heart. In 1989, Holly is a struggling writer living at home and dating Carl who is a close friend of Marina. Marina seems successful and marrying and converting to Judism. Nat is back with Isabel but their marriage is in trouble.This is a girls' best friends forever relationship filled with jealousy, possession and complications. This is the ugly side of female relationship but it takes a long time to boil over. While I like the dark subject matter, I wish it's handled with a darker style and a darker touch. Although both actresses does an excellent job. Holly's submissiveness really gets on my nerves and Marina needs to be crazier earlier. It hints at Marina's dark home life but it would be helpful to show more of the darkness. The whole tone has too much airy lightness.

This is one of those movies where it's supposed to be like real life, where stuff just sort of happens without the artifice of plot moving things toward a conclusion, and it's a good example of both the strengths and weaknesses of that style.Me Without You is about two girls who live next door to each other in England. Holly (Michelle Williams) is the intellectual one and Marina (Anna Friel) is the wild one. It follows their lives from being children in 1973 to grown women in 2001 and how their close friendship degenerates into disturbing co-dependency.The best things about this film are its smart observations of the rising and falling tides of life and how it lets the performers stretch themselves in the moment. The story recognizes that people flourish and languish at different times in their lives, that they aren't static or standing still. As a child, Holly is clearly the follower to Marina's leader but when they get to college, Marina is the directionless party girl while Holly is the one with her life in order. And as young adults, it is Holly who's stuck in a rut while Marina's life is moving forward. That also allows both actresses a chance to develop their characters into real people, establishing a core identity but also showing us how those people are both changed by time and circumstance, yet remain the same in fundamental good and bad ways. Without having to service a plot, the characters can develop an organic sense of realism.But the real life stylings of the story also hamper the film. It's all well and good to create complex and intriguing characters, but then you have to do something with them. That's where the plot comes in, giving a sense of purpose and direction that doesn't usually exist in real life. It connects all the action and behavior together as it moves from beginning to conclusion. Movies like Me Without You consciously avoid linear, propulsive storytelling…and they usually run into a problem as some point. In this movie, it comes as it shifts from Holly and Marina as college students to adults.The film is able to rely on the natural events of growth and development from childhood to young adulthood to give the story some structure. That sort of self-evident direction doesn't exist as grown-ups, though. There aren't that many definable moments that flow from one to another in a coherent pattern. In Me Without You, that results in the film having to introduce a bunch of really arbitrary elements to Holly and Marina's lives, things that don't naturally flow from what we've seen of the characters up until then.Another interesting thing about this film is how it demonstrates the difference between movie nudity in the American and British cinema. When someone gets naked in an American movie, there's almost always a purpose for it. It may be salacious and sleazy or it may have a genuine artistic point, but characters in American films get naked because someone wanted them to get naked at that point in the film. In British and European films, thought, nudity is often portrayed as though it were accidental or happenstance. The actors are naked just because they're in a situation where people would normally be naked and there's no effort made to cover up. They'll sit up in bed, the covers will slip down and…whoops, there's a nipple! Whether that's a more enlightened approach to movie nudity is up to each viewer to decide for themselves.Me Without You is one of those films that you'll enjoy if you buy into the characters and become invested in how their lives turn out. It asks for an emotional commitment from its audience. But if you just want to be entertained and not bothered by a movie, this probably isn't what you're looking for.

I loved this film. I cannot fathom why the above reviewer calls it "maudlin" and the comparison to Antonia and Jane seems way off base, as does the comment that this is somehow like a Mike Leigh film! (makes me think they have never seen a Mike Leigh film). Also the comment on the "Miranda" character does not inspire confidence since the character's name is Marina!In any case, this film deftly captures several eras with its complex and lush visual design, reflecting the inner world of Holly who is a creative, romantic soul and the outer surface of Marina who is a chameleon-like, savvy trendsetter. The music is also extremely well-utilized, as are the many pop cultural references that lend authenticity to the changes in chronology without being too obvious.A fine cast too! Williams and Friel are excellent and their evolution from teenagers to young women to early thirties is convincing and enthralling. I also love Trudy Styler as a pill-popping, slutty- dressing "mom" and Allan Corduner has a solid turn as Holly's kind, befuddled father. Kyle Maclachlan seems somewhat miscast at times but plays the reckless professor well. I also found Oliver Milburn as Nat to be charming, and though she has a small role the French actress who plays his fiancé is great...I last saw her in My Sex Life and she is also terrific in that.On its surface (the candybox colors, the fluffy music) this might seem like a Brit chick flick but it's really an exploration of what happens when an obsessive friendship grows beyond its usefulness.

A real look at women with depth and foibles sustaining a friendship- Why is this so rarely done? The details are succinct and amazing. This is what real people look like and act like- when they're tired, confused, angry, jealous etc., etc. No glossing. By showing the 'bones' of the characters' neuroses the evolution of the people themselves and their friendship becomes complex and satisfying. And,hey, the period details are fabulous- I was right back there with them wearing tarty, tatty club clothes and listening to Adam Ant with fake pirates. Loved this movie.