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76
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60
9
17
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37
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53
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66
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45
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61
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55
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43
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66
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29
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23
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80
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61
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39
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xx
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30
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34
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60
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32
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27
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41
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39
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46
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73
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78
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55
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66
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69
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58
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47
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66
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34
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33
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54
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67
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51
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42
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28
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63
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86
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35
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48
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30
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53
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24
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83
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33
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45
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55
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47
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96
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35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
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88
Up![]()
71
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67
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28
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73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
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39
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78
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61
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66
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xx
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58
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72
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48
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73
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62
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55
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76
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86
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13
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70
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35
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71
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66
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51
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xx
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76
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26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
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45
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81
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70
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45
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xx
Carriers
55
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57
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62
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65
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69
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59
Collapse
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82
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75
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82
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67
Departures
xx
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71
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70
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24
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85
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55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
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xx
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63
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73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
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41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
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xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
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66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Me Without You

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 9 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Sandra Goldbacher
Directed by: Sandra Goldbacher
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 5, 2002
DVD: June 17, 2003
Running Time: 107 minutes, Color
Origin: Germany / UK
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Sandra Goldbacher, Michelle Williams, Oliver Milburn, Trudie Styler, Marianne Denicourt, Steve John Shepherd, and Kyle MacLachlan
Spanning the 1970's and 1980's, this is the story of two best friends (Williams, Friel) living in the suburbs of London.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: The Governess
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site Official U.K. Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Friendship matters to those of us who still claim membership in the human race, and Goldbacher's merciless autopsy on it is both illuminating and dispiriting.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Has a bracing truth that's refreshing after the phoniness of female-bonding pictures like "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
This film's intelligence and forthrightness about the things women sometimes do to one another -- and its resoluteness about where the line should be drawn in terms of selflessness between friends -- set it head and shoulders above most contemporary movies that deal with friendships between women.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Michelle Williams turns in a performance that is seamless, canny and artistically mature.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
You won't want to miss it if you care about movies that dare to chart intimacies in our age of spectacle, or about up-and-coming female performers and underused male veterans finding roles worthy of their gifts.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
A chick movie? Well, yes, but it's a whole lot cooler than that one with the "Ya-Ya's" in the title.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer
A powerful new film from British writer-director Sandra Goldbacher.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Offers a clear-eyed chronicle of a female friendship that is more complex and honest than anything represented in a Hollywood film.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Lou Carlozo
The only the bum steer in Me Without You comes in the person of Daniel, played by Kyle MacLachlan of "Twin Peaks" fame. It's hard to tell whether MacLachlan was dealt a bum hand in an otherwise fine screenplay or acted on auto-pilot.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
Love. Lust. Recrimination. Jealousy. Resolution. This British female friendship melodrama has them all.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Anchored by Friel and Williams's exceptional performances, the film's power lies in its complexity. Nothing is black and white, starting with the girls' complicated relationships with their parents, which are simultaneously nurturing and fraught with psychological peril.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
An engaging, straightforward narrative about two childhood playmates and the stages of their friendship from 1973 to 2001.
Read Full Review >Variety David Rooney
The two appealingly played central characters and the film's enjoyable evocation of the 1970s and '80s keep it buoyant and diverting.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Under its drab contemporary trappings, the movie, is really a Jane Austen-like moral parable in which goodness is rewarded and selfishness punished.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
More predictable than it ought to be - you can set your watch by the appearance of the mournful Nick Drake song on the soundtrack.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
Me Without You is at its truest and most affecting when it steps back from the gig gling, bitching and nail biting to reveal how the compulsion to control and appropriate can be born of simple love and admiration.
Read Full Review >Film Threat KJ Doughton
A sum greater than its parts. The viewer is taken on a journey spanning nearly three decades of bittersweet camaraderie and history, in which we feel that we truly know what makes Holly and Marina tick, and our hearts go out to them as both continue to negotiate their imperfect, love-hate relationship.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Aided by raw, committed performances from her two leads, Goldbacher makes them tough company for themselves and anyone else around them, on or off the screen.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
This British drama is so overplotted it smothers the two main characters as much as they do each other.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Dennis Lim
Essentially humorless, Me Without You manages some pleasing textures all the same.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Merle Bertrand
Not enough to hold the audience's interest, especially with such shallow simpletons as these two women in the leads.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
A slight, smartly dressed bit of melodrama that thinks it's gritty when it's really a bit of puff.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Though it boasts excellent performances by Anna Friel and Michelle Williams as bosom buddies whose lives meander over three decades, it plods on with a wearying predictability and some truly terrible dialogue.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jay H. gave it a5:
5.5/10. I was not impressed with Michelle Williams performance, but Anna Friel was very good. The movie lacks substance and the direction to draw the viewer into the characters. It just scratches the surface of the story. Tends to be slow moving at times.
Eddie C. gave it a10:
I love this movie... the story and the acting are great. and somehow the lack of perfection makes it perfect.
Andrew B. gave it a2:
A dismal film. The plot was full of implausible twists, involving crassly-drawn characters and dialogue that made me cringe. Actresses of the calibre of Anna Friel and Michelle Williams deserve much more than ths contrived mess.
Mike M. gave it a 7:
Excellent acting, real though gross characters, very good soundtrack, good pacing as the girls move through life, too soap-opera-ish.
Laurie D. gave it a 10:
Excellent movie with a good plot great actors and the editing is effective.
Caley C. gave it a 6:
I found this movie to be intriguing at first, but as it progressed I began to lose interest. The plot was too predictable and it was agonizing to watch these girls struggle to remain true to one another.
