ME WITHOUT YOU

Imagine life without you! ME WITHOUT YOU gives new meaning to the world of friendship. Michelle Williams and Anna Friel play best friends from childhood to adulthood. In their journey of growing up, they experience everything from first parties to first husbands together. Williams plays Holly, a girl coming from a strict, yet moral family, while Friel plays Marina, a girl coming from a liberal, yet broken family. Each girl ends up making different choices when faced with certain situations. Ultimately, each one learns from their mistakes and about themselves, paving a road for survival, friendship and a happy family life.

Holly and Marina go through three decades in England, starting from the late 1970s and ending in the year 2001. As next door neighbors, they make a pact in 1978 to be friends forever.

Holly comes from overprotective, yet loving, parents. Marina comes from a no rules type of family. Holly longs to be more like Marina, which sets up Marina as “The Leader.”

In the 80s, the girls enter their teenage years and explore the world of cigarettes, parties, boys, sex, drugs, music, alcohol, and, of course, begin the search for romantic love. During this time, Marina becomes troubled, selfish and controlling, all in part due to the divorce of her parents. Marina starts taking drugs and alcohol. With her life headed toward self-destruction, her best friend, Holly, begins to feel trapped, wanting to separate herself from a life destined for corruption.

As the girls head into their later teens, Holly discovers that she is in love with Marina’s brother Nat Milburn (Kyle MacLachlan) and looses her virginity to him at a party. After she realizes that he already has a girlfriend, Holly decides to bury her head in books, to forget not only about her passion for Nat, but also about her over-protective mother as well. With Marina having always been obsessed with looking good and taking possession over all people and situations, Holly begins to feel insecure and unhappy, especially in comparing herself with her beautiful and powerful best friend.

As they head into the 90s, Holly and Marina not only still have a close bonding friendship, but continue to support each other through rough times. By this time, they have already seen each other through many of life’s pleasures and pains especially through a variety of relationships with different men.

Now, the girls have entered college and end up having a sexual relationship with their English class college professor without the other knowing. This serves as a turning point in their friendship. Holly gets involved after several tutoring classes with him, while Marina throws herself at him on a spontaneous date. Each girl ends up becoming emotionally attached to the same man, but when Marina finds Holly’s necklace in the teacher’s bed, her respect for Holly begins to fail. It is only when Holly sees Marina leave the professor’s house that the girls finally learn about their affair, and all their emotions get blown up in the open, and they each break up with their same boyfriend. It is then when the girls realize that they can be truly happy only if they settle down and find Mr. Right, leaving their lustful desires behind. Eventually, Holly and Marina resolve their personal conflicts and start their own families.

ME WITHOUT YOU is a wonderfully summarized picture of a modern female best friend relationship, and the adventurous journey that flows naturally through the process of growing up. Teen years are the most vulnerable to falling into worldly actions such as sex, drugs and alcohol, while adult years are the most probed for spiritual submission, finding thyself, finding God, finding Mr. or Mrs. Right, and finding overall maturity. While most individuals experiment with life’s sinful pleasures at one point or another, there are those who choose to become hooked on such addictions for prolonged periods of time, and there are those who just try the candy, but stop themselves from becoming addicted. As for those who make the immoral decisions, they probably do so for freedom from depression, anger and emotional suffering. Regrettably, there are few people out there who decide to get “hooked” on God for relief or pleasure.

Marina seems to play the character or the individual who relies on worldly pleasures for spiritual fulfillment while Holly seems to play the role of the individual who knows it’s wrong, but does it anyway, yet eventually comes to the reality that an immoral life leads only to destruction rather than to spiritual joy and fulfillment. Holly also discovers that true love only comes once you are in control of your decisions, and that a true relationship can only come through individual personal choices, not by living through another human being.

In all, the girls learned from their mistakes and realized that self-security and true happiness was not 100% attainable when relying on each other, or their boyfriends, but it came when they went their separate ways to discover themselves. Marina and Holly’s friendship was at its best after they each got married and had children. Why? Because even if there’s no talk of Jesus Christ in the movie, the Bible clearly states that true peace is given to those who search for the truth with all their heart and both Holly and Marina searched for truth, their true selves and the true meaning of their lives, but searched mostly for a peace from all their sorrow.

“While we look at the things which are seen, we ignore those that are unseen; for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” 2 Corinthians: 4, 18.

Holly and Marina spent way too much time focusing on those temporary worldly and physical needs, yet not enough time looking for their spiritual and eternal needs, but imagine if they took at least one point in their young lives to look for God, the one who sees the ENTIRE picture and not just a piece of it. Imagine the trouble they COULD have saved themselves; and, imagine the salvation that God would have been willing to give them.