My Life Without Me

Writer/director Coixet delivers a weepy drama about a young, married woman who keeps her impending death a secret from her family. Diagnosed with inoperable ovarian cancer, the happily married 23-year-old Ann (Polley) decides against telling husband Don (Speedman) and their two daughters about her condition. With only a few months to live, Ann draws up a list of things to do before dying, one of which is to really fall in love with another man. She soon finds a cooperative lover in Lee (Ruffalo), who falls for her too. She also tries to set her husband up with a replacement wife, also named Ann (Watling). Despite the far-fetched, soap operatic script and less than sympathetic main character, earnest performances (especially from the likeable Polley) ratchet up the believability factor.