MovieChat Forums > My Life Without Me (2003) Discussion > A few loose ends... (spoilers)

A few loose ends... (spoilers)


I absolutely LOVE this movie! I can't tell you how many times I have watched it while working (I work at home and it's in the background). But anyway....2 things I question....

1. Did she ever send her father the girl's shoe sizes? The movie never shows this, but do you think she did for closure with her father?

2. She gave the doctor all of her tapes for her girls. The doctor looked pretty old and sort of frail to me....maybe late 50's early 60's? Again, he just also didn't look "well" to me. Is he really going to make it through the next 17 or so years to be able to give the tapes to the girls? To me he looked like death warmed over. Maybe he told someone else about them and what to do? This part really bothers me....

I also just want to say that Mark Ruffalo was brilliant and just so sexy in this part. When he is listening to the tape at the very end the way he looks is my favorite scene in the movie.

I know a lot of people hate this movie, but if I was dying I think I'd do the same thing as Ann. I'd have a different list to accomplish, but I don't think I'd want everyone hovering over me if I could play it out until I actually passed like she did. This movie is brilliant.

Cora

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I have to say that my heart went out to Mark Ruffalo in a way that my heart has never, ever gone out to another character or actor. When she first comes to his house and he's so nervous and shy, I just wanted to put my arms around him. His tears when Don picks Ann up after their last meeting broke my heart - he portrays that fragile sorrow so very well.

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I too wouldn't and don't want to burden my family if I become ill. I empathized with the main character. She's not a selfish person and to me the only selfish thing was to have Ruffalos character fall in love with her only to pass away. He'd been hurt before and that seemed cruel in a subconscious way. She got to fall in love but he's left with the fray. I felt bad for him but understood her need to get through her list. One of the few movies in my life I absolutely cried through and felt an odd connection to at that time of my life. It's a great understated movie but definitely leaves the viewer with a reaction one way or another.

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That was one thing that always bothered me about the ending, her father reconnected with her and yet in the ending, even though it shows every other person whose lives Ann has touched, her dad isn't there. 😕

I think in the case of the doctor, Ann just trusted him because he really went out of his way to do what she wanted for her in her dying months. A lot of doctors would've ignored her request and contacted her family to tell them about her death regardless of her wishes, but Dr. Thompson didn't. As Ann mentioned, Dr. Thompson had shyness problems and yet he went out of his way to treat her like a human being rather than a patient, so by giving him the cassettes, I think she was trying to give him the only thing she had to give, her voice to all her loved ones in the form of prerecorded tapes.

Mark Ruffalo was excellent in this film. I don't think Ann was wrong in cheating on Don by dating Lee, but Lee fell in love with her and it seemed that she was almost just using him. However in creating the final tape for him, I think she really did truly care about him.



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