I don't like spoilers but you really can't review this movie without it so I beg your indulgence.
Two people, each with terminal cancer, meet and fall in love and only by accident does each one find out the other's "secret." This may not be a good way to start a relationship but, in this case, it works and it makes for a wonderful albeit sad movie.
Griffin is told he has a chestful of tumors and, at most, a year to live. He has 2 sons by his first wife and, realizing he has little time left, he spends more time with them.
He also attends a Life Against Death type of class where he meets a different, almost kooky girl named Phoenix (somewhere, midway in the film we learn her first name is Sarah. I'm not sure we ever learn Griffin's first name). She likes Griffin though she thinks he's a bit off the wall but she doesn't want to get involved with Griffin because she has a secret. One morning after they've spent the night together, she finds books in his apartment about dying. She thinks he bought them because he knows her "secret." Then, after screaming at and pummeling him, he tells her the books are his. Yes, they're his, he said, but he bought them for himself and is reading them because HE is is dying. She then tells him she is dying too ... she also has cancer, she says, that started in her ovaries and is now all over the place. Once they share their secrets, ironically, they really start to live, love and enjoy one another. They realize they've found their soul mates but they have only a limited time to enjoy and appreciate one another. And this they do with a vengeance.
There are some goofy, silly scenes in the movie that could have been left out although they illustrate the idea of doing what you've always wanted to do and to enjoy each day as if it were your last.
But at the end (and I won't say what happens; it's not as obvious as you think), I found myself saying, "I'd give my SOUL for a love like that." It's the kind of love story most of us women crave and I'm no exception. Another plus for this movie is Dermot Mulroney is so handsome! I actually envied Amanda Peete because (in this movie) she gets to fall in love with and make passionate love with him. Oh, lucky lady!
Two people, each with terminal cancer, meet and fall in love and only by accident does each one find out the other's "secret." This may not be a good way to start a relationship but, in this case, it works and it makes for a wonderful albeit sad movie.
Griffin is told he has a chestful of tumors and, at most, a year to live. He has 2 sons by his first wife and, realizing he has little time left, he spends more time with them.
He also attends a Life Against Death type of class where he meets a different, almost kooky girl named Phoenix (somewhere, midway in the film we learn her first name is Sarah. I'm not sure we ever learn Griffin's first name). She likes Griffin though she thinks he's a bit off the wall but she doesn't want to get involved with Griffin because she has a secret. One morning after they've spent the night together, she finds books in his apartment about dying. She thinks he bought them because he knows her "secret." Then, after screaming at and pummeling him, he tells her the books are his. Yes, they're his, he said, but he bought them for himself and is reading them because HE is is dying. She then tells him she is dying too ... she also has cancer, she says, that started in her ovaries and is now all over the place. Once they share their secrets, ironically, they really start to live, love and enjoy one another. They realize they've found their soul mates but they have only a limited time to enjoy and appreciate one another. And this they do with a vengeance.
There are some goofy, silly scenes in the movie that could have been left out although they illustrate the idea of doing what you've always wanted to do and to enjoy each day as if it were your last.
But at the end (and I won't say what happens; it's not as obvious as you think), I found myself saying, "I'd give my SOUL for a love like that." It's the kind of love story most of us women crave and I'm no exception. Another plus for this movie is Dermot Mulroney is so handsome! I actually envied Amanda Peete because (in this movie) she gets to fall in love with and make passionate love with him. Oh, lucky lady!