Movies about female friendship usually go the "Ya-Ya" route, celebrating the joys of close ties between girlfriends. "Me Without You," a powerful new film from British writer-director Sandra Goldbacher, reveals a less tidy, more insidious version, one in which undying loyalty coexists with cruelty and subterfuge.
There's no question the friendship between affection-starved man-eater Marina (Anna Friel) and studious Holly (Michelle Williams) will spin out of control. The script by Goldbacher and Laurence Coriat paints Marina as spiteful from puberty on, her deceptions growing more vicious and unbelievable as the picture moves from the pair's 1970s girlhood into young adulthood.
Goldbacher, who made 1998's overlooked "The Governess," is most adept at visual storytelling, capturing intimate moments with breathtaking acuity. She's also got a couple of spirited actresses in her corner.
Williams drops her "Dawson's Creek" persona immediately, mastering a middle- class English accent and kindly, mousy demeanor. The actress' manner fits a girl whose mother has told her, by way of comfort, "Some girls are pretty, and some are smart."
Williams shines in a stolen moment, vividly framed by Goldbacher, where the teenage Holly finds herself in the bedroom of Marina's brother, on whom she has a mad, secret crush. Williams shows the girl's sneaky wonderment at being in this hallowed place. Those are his dirty clothes on the floor, his punk- rock posters on the wall.
Goldbacher delivers another remarkably visceral scene in which Holly suffers an emotional jolt. The camera adopts the character's-eye view; as she tries to flee the room, people around her become roadblocks, talking in slow motion and moving as if through Jell-O.
Friel has less to work with as the bad seed, but conveys her sadistic character's tortured bond to her friend. She turns a scene where Marina tells Holly, "There's no me without you," into something poignant instead of overwrought.
Kyle MacLachlan ("Sex and the City") makes an insinuating weasel as a professor who sparks romantic hopes in both young women. As Marina's cocktail- swilling mother, Trudie Styler (Sting's wife) cuts a glamorously wasted figure,
the kind of woman who's great fun as your friend's mother and a nightmare as your own. . This film contains raw language, nudity, sexual scenes.
There's no question the friendship between affection-starved man-eater Marina (Anna Friel) and studious Holly (Michelle Williams) will spin out of control. The script by Goldbacher and Laurence Coriat paints Marina as spiteful from puberty on, her deceptions growing more vicious and unbelievable as the picture moves from the pair's 1970s girlhood into young adulthood.
Goldbacher, who made 1998's overlooked "The Governess," is most adept at visual storytelling, capturing intimate moments with breathtaking acuity. She's also got a couple of spirited actresses in her corner.
Williams drops her "Dawson's Creek" persona immediately, mastering a middle- class English accent and kindly, mousy demeanor. The actress' manner fits a girl whose mother has told her, by way of comfort, "Some girls are pretty, and some are smart."
Williams shines in a stolen moment, vividly framed by Goldbacher, where the teenage Holly finds herself in the bedroom of Marina's brother, on whom she has a mad, secret crush. Williams shows the girl's sneaky wonderment at being in this hallowed place. Those are his dirty clothes on the floor, his punk- rock posters on the wall.
Goldbacher delivers another remarkably visceral scene in which Holly suffers an emotional jolt. The camera adopts the character's-eye view; as she tries to flee the room, people around her become roadblocks, talking in slow motion and moving as if through Jell-O.
Friel has less to work with as the bad seed, but conveys her sadistic character's tortured bond to her friend. She turns a scene where Marina tells Holly, "There's no me without you," into something poignant instead of overwrought.
Kyle MacLachlan ("Sex and the City") makes an insinuating weasel as a professor who sparks romantic hopes in both young women. As Marina's cocktail- swilling mother, Trudie Styler (Sting's wife) cuts a glamorously wasted figure,
the kind of woman who's great fun as your friend's mother and a nightmare as your own. . This film contains raw language, nudity, sexual scenes.
No comments:
Post a Comment