08/19/06 Me Without You

Me Without You (2001), directed by Sandra Goldbacher

watched w/ Leslie; DVD rental (Netflix) @ home

Finally back home from our long road trip, it was nice to settle down on the couch to watch a rental...rather than being cooped up in the passenger seat of a car stuck in rush hour D.C. traffic. This fractured story of two best friends growing up in London during the 1970's and 80's is a wonderfully unflinching and poignant drama. The two girls, Holly (Michelle Williams) and Marina (Anna Friel), make a childhood pact to remain friends through thick & thin...not knowing what adolescent and adult challenges were to come their way. Both very different, their interests in music, fashion, boys and dysfunctional families keep them constantly connected. Holly is the shy, intelligent, and rather plain one...who comes from a loving home but is constantly put down by her mother for not being quite as pretty as her best friend, and who also happens to have the world's largest crush on Marina's older brother. Marina is the flashy, brash, and sexual one...who comes from a broken home of drug-addicted mother and playboy adultering father, and finds it necessary to keep a tight hold on her best friend by never allowing her to grow as a person. The friendship takes them through extremes in emotion, from the purest joy of youth, jealous control over relationship choices, nagging insecurities placed by their parents, betrayal of trust, and ultimately finding their own ways separately without losing one another. The turmoil comes to a boiling point in college when both young women have affairs with a married professor, and Holly & Marina are forced to address Holly's long standing infatuation with Marina's brother. It's a tale of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, British school girl style...with lots of black eyes and blush to boot. Great soundtrack, raw undertones of the early punk/youth movement in London, contemporary brilliance in the lost generation, and once again a showcase to show how good of an actress Michelle Williams is. Bring on the eyeliner and combat boots!

4 out of 5 stars