Me Without You

Although it covers 28 years in the stormy friendship of two Londoners--troubled Marina (Anna Friel) and subdued Holly (Michelle Williams)--writer/director Sandra Goldbacher's (The Governess) 2001 box office bomb feels like a full century. Divided into a succession of chronological episodes, beginning in 1973 when the girls are 12-year-old neighbors, the narrative jumps forward to 1978, 1982, 1989, and finally 2001. Over the years, Marina compulsively sabotages her friend's romantic attachments (including one with Marina's older brother), yet the relationship endures, making the film a kind of pint-sized British version of Beaches, with a sappy script that clashes with a freewheeling cinematic style trying to mimic the atmosphere of trendy English movies from the '60s and '70s. Ultimately, even though the acting is good--both Friel and Williams are solid, and Kyle MacLachlan is amusing as a visiting professor and would-be Casanova--the lead characters make a rather unpleasant pair, providing an example of twisted codependency that brings them both (as well as the viewer) more misery than joy. Not a necessary purchase. (F. Swietek)