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The plot is a bog-standard romantic triangle. Rosie and Vincent, who have been married five years or so, want a baby, but nothing's happening. It doesn't help that Rosie's older sister has sprogs burgeoning like mushrooms wherever you look. Then up pops a figure from Rosie's past--Benoît, her pen-pal from before she met Vincent. And being French, he's naturally charming, witty, romantic and everything poor old Vincent isn't. Think you can guess what's coming? Well, most likely you can--right down to the all-too-pat happy ending.
Still, the actors (Christopher Ecclestone, Dervla Kirwan and Yvan Attal are the leads) are accomplished and watchable, the dialogue stays the right side of banal and it's refreshing to see Belfast shown as a civilised, cultured place to live. With or Without You passes an hour and a half pleasantly enough and may even raise the odd chuckle, but it covers well-trodden territory without much new to say.
On the DVD: aptly routine stuff--the theatrical trailer, a bland "making of" featurette and some interviews with the three principal players. Widescreen (16:9 anamorphic) and Dolby Surround Sound give the material the best possible showcase. --Philip Kemp
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Winterbottom is here aided by a strong cast, which features regular collaborator Christopher Eccleston alongside former Goodnight Sweetheart/Ballykissangel star Dervla Kirwan as the couple going through a series of personal-problems, whilst such impressive performers as Julie Graham, Yvan Attal, Alun Armstrong, Doon Mackichan and Fionnula Flanagan fill in the supporting roles. The film is given a fragment of originality through Wintebottom’s use of cinematic technique, with many of the images often composed so as to appear as windows within windows... sort of like what Peter Greenaway did with Prospero and the Pillow Book. There’s no real need for this device here, other than the fact that it seems to conform to the director’s view of the material as a sort of Godardian retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, complete with the evil mystery woman, a forest scene and many, many attempts at mirror symbolism.
Winterbottom is an intelligent filmmaker, and it is this intelligence that makes even his most insipid films (this is one of them) at least watch-able on a first-hand level. The film’s climax on the beach seems like a direct reference to Godard’s Pierre Le Fu and Weekend respectively, whilst for a film that aims it’s self so squarely at the made for TV demographic, there sure are a great deal of adventurous (and somewhat explicit) sex scenes peppered throughout. With Or Without You does now, seem somewhat out of place on the filmmaker’s CV (which also features the award winners, 24 Hour Party People and In This World), though despite it’s bland plotting and MOR characterisations, it does at least offer an hour and a half of easy-to-digest, undemanding entertainment.
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