My Life Without Me

My Life Without Me is a 2003 film about a young, hard-working woman living an uneventful life. When she is diagnosed with terminal cancer, she decides to keep it a secret from her family and compiles a list of things she wants to do before she dies.
 * ''Directed by Isabel Coixet. Written by Isabel Coixet and Nanci Kincaid.

Ann

 * No one's normal, mom. No such thing as normal people.


 * (to herself) Now you feel like you want to take all the drugs in the world. But all the drugs in the world aren't going to change the feeling that your whole life's been a dream and it's only now that you're waking up.


 * Alone. You're alone.  You've never been so alone in your life.  Lies are your only company.


 * Ann: THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE.
 * 1. Tell my daughters I love them several times.
 * 2. Find Don a new wife who the girls like.
 * 3. Record birthday messages for the girls for every year until they're 18.
 * 4. Go to Whalebay Beach together and have a big picnic.
 * 5. Smoke and drink as much as I want.
 * 6. Say what I'm thinking.
 * 7. Make love with other men to see what it's like.
 * 8. Make someone fall in love with me.
 * 9. Go and see Dad in Jail.
 * 10. Get false nails. And do something with my hair.


 * Try and be patient with her [Ann's mother], okay? She... she is a good person even if it doesn't always seem that way. She's... none of the things she always dreamed about ever came true, you know? Try and understand her.  Don't let her make you mad.


 * (to herself) You pray that they will have moments of happiness so intense, that all of their problems will seem insignificant by comparison. You don't know who or what you're praying to, but you pray. You don't even regret the life that you're not gonna have, because by then you'll be dead. And the dead don't feel anything. Not even regret.

Others

 * Ann's father: You just can't live the kind of life that other people want us to live. No matter how hard you try, you just can't do it.

Dialogue

 * Ann: I said thanks okay so just drop it.
 * Ann's Mother: I don't need your thanks.
 * Ann: Okay, so I take them back then.




 * Lee: Ann, there's something I have to tell you and I have to tell you now.
 * Ann: Lee, I'm...
 * Lee: I love you. I'm in love with you. And the world seems less terrible because you exist. I feel like I wanna be with you for the rest of my life. And all that, the palpitations, and the nerves, the pain, the happiness and the fear. I wanna... I wanna touch you all the time! I wanna take care of you and your girls and even find your husband a decent job and get you a house that doesn't have wheels and...
 * Ann: Be careful. That sounds like a classic case of falling in love.
 * Lee: I am in love. I'm classically in love. The classic husband is gonna to be here any minute. And the classic depression that sets in everytime you go off with him... and the crying and the tears and everything.

Cast

 * Sarah Polley - Ann
 * Scott Speedman - Don
 * Mark Ruffalo - Lee
 * Deborah Harry - Ann's Mother
 * Leonor Watling - Ann the neighbor
 * Amanda Plummer - Laurie
 * Alfred Molina - Ann's Father
 * Jessica Amlee - Penny
 * Kenya Jo Kennedy - Patsy
 * Julian Richings - Dr. Thompson