NIKKI says:A beautiful little movie about a woman reassessing her life upon finding out she had two months to live. She resists telling those closest to her and lives a sort of fantasy life for a time, experiencing her passions, new and old, in renewed ways.
I loved that the film resisted anything remotely saccharine. It gets quite sad at times, but never does it push us over the edge with long soliloquys or anything like that. Ann deals with her situation matter-of-factly, and just goes about the business of preparing herself for death. She sets herself some goals, and goes about achieving them.
Along the way, she finds hints here and there of what her life might have been like had she not been sick, had she not gotten pregnant at 17 and married her first boyfriend. She finds out that she is a viable, relevant soul, and that she's more than just a trailer-park mum who cleans a local school.
She also learns, as we do, that all roads leads to one place. She sings "God Only Knows" to her kind husband, while we see shots of her with her lover, and we realise, there's no telling what life would be like had we made different choices. Ann gives herself a small amount of time to peak at those laternate roads and the tragedy is that they work for her, too. She loves her husband, but she loves her new friend, too. There are so many choices. But do they all lead to the same place? Maybe, now that I think about it, they don't...
Wow, I took quite a bit away from this movie. In hindsight, I'm seeing so many themes and ideas. It was just another enjoyable story that ranks with Lonesome Jim as one of my faves for the month. Good writing, good humour, great performances.
4/5
STEVE says:
I'd resisted watching this one for quite some time. If anything screams Chick Flick louder than a young mother of two dying of ovarian cancer, it must be in a range so high that only dogs and bats know about it.
But Chick Flick or not, my new-found respect for Sarah Polley eventually won through. All I'll say is, if there were more movies like this one, or Lonesome Jim, maybe Juno wouldn't have been such a stand-out.
4/5
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