Me Without You Details

This better-than-average British film about female friendship was a deserved hit for director Sandra Goldbacher at the Venice film festival. Detailing the relationship between inseparable childhood friends Anna Friel and Michelle Williams, the film follows the girls from 1970s spacehoppers through teenage sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, to university and into the present day. The fabulous attention to period detail is matched by equally strong emotional observation, as the difference between Friel's brittle bitch and Williams's bright but delicate innocent gets more exaggerated and the friendship disintegrates from undying loyalty to an almost claustrophobic curse. The excellent Oliver Milburn co-stars as Friel's brother Nat — and longtime object of Williams affections — while Kyle MacLachlan is suitably sleazy as their university tutor. The strength of the film should be that its truisms won't just make sense to women — even men might begin to appreciate the fascinating Pandora's Box of close female friendships.

"...Friel dazzles....ME WITHOUT YOU evokes its various periods deftly in changing personal styles, enriched with an evocative soundtrack featuring primarily '80s songs..."