Metascore
67 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 25
  2. Negative: 1 out of 25
  1. Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    90
    Rich, finely judged, gorgeously acted movie.
  2. 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.
  3. 88
    Has a bracing truth that's refreshing after the phoniness of female-bonding pictures like "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."
  4. 80
    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.
  5. Michelle Williams turns in a performance that is seamless, canny and artistically mature.
  6. Reviewed by: Lou Carlozo
    75
    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.
  7. A chick movie? Well, yes, but it's a whole lot cooler than that one with the "Ya-Ya's" in the title.
  8. Reviewed by: Carla Meyer
    75
    A powerful new film from British writer-director Sandra Goldbacher.
  9. 75
    Offers a clear-eyed chronicle of a female friendship that is more complex and honest than anything represented in a Hollywood film.
  10. 75
    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.
  11. Love. Lust. Recrimination. Jealousy. Resolution. This British female friendship melodrama has them all.
  12. 70
    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.
  13. An engaging, straightforward narrative about two childhood playmates and the stages of their friendship from 1973 to 2001.
  14. Under its drab contemporary trappings, the movie, is really a Jane Austen-like moral parable in which goodness is rewarded and selfishness punished.
  15. Reviewed by: David Rooney
    70
    The two appealingly played central characters and the film's enjoyable evocation of the 1970s and '80s keep it buoyant and diverting.
  16. Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    63
    More predictable than it ought to be - you can set your watch by the appearance of the mournful Nick Drake song on the soundtrack.
  17. Reviewed by: KJ Doughton
    60
    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.
  18. 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.
  19. 60
    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.
  20. 60
    Essentially humorless, Me Without You manages some pleasing textures all the same.
  21. 60
    This British drama is so overplotted it smothers the two main characters as much as they do each other.
  22. Tough, unsentimental British film.
  23. 50
    Not enough to hold the audience's interest, especially with such shallow simpletons as these two women in the leads.
  24. 50
    A slight, smartly dressed bit of melodrama that thinks it's gritty when it's really a bit of puff.
  25. 38
    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.
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 7
  2. Negative: 1 out of 7
  1. JayH.
    5
    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. Full Review »
  2. EddieC.
    10
    I love this movie... the story and the acting are great. and somehow the lack of perfection makes it perfect.
  3. AndrewB.
    2
    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. Full Review »