Taglines: every moment counts.
My Life movie storyline. Detroit, Michigan, 1963: Bob Ivanovich is a young boy, who prays one night for a circus in his backyard the next day after school. After school the next day, he runs home eagerly, followed by his friends. To his disappointment, no circus awaits. Angrily, Bob retreats to the closet in his room, his personal retreat space.
Thirty years later, Bob Jones (Keaton) now runs a Los Angeles public relations firm. He is happily married to Gail (Kidman), who is pregnant with their first child. Bob is horrified to learn that he has been diagnosed with a terminal form of kidney cancer and might not live to see their baby born.
Bob begins to make home movies, to immortalize himself, to be shown after his death to his son, so he’ll know who his father was, showing him how to cook spaghetti, how to drive, etc. He also begins to visit a Chinese healer named Mr. Ho (Dr. Haing S. Ngor), who urges him to listen to his heart, which is calling him to forgive, and that life is always giving him invitations if he would just listen.
At his wife’s urging, they fly to his hometown of Detroit to attend the wedding of his brother Paul (Whitford). While in the area, Bob visits his childhood home. Also while there, they attempt to mend fences with his estranged family, which does not go well. Bob criticizes his brother for not moving to California like he did, and his father (Constantine) resents Bob’s moving thousands of miles away and changing his name.
Bob returns to California with a heavy heart, sadly saying to his wife, “This is my last trip home.” During a visit with Mr. Ho, he advises Bob to go into his heart “soon.” Bob teaches his son by camera how to shave, play basketball, and start a car by jumper cable. He also confronts a childhood fear by finally riding a formidable roller coaster.
During the ride, a young companion urges him to let go of the railing as the descent begins, but Bob firmly holds on. (A metaphor of his fear of letting go of life.) He is living on borrowed time—beyond the date the doctors gave him, as he says to his wife after getting off the coaster, “Today is D-Day. Death Day. I was supposed to be dead by today.”
Gail’s contractions increase, and soon she is in the hospital, to give birth to their baby. Bob and Gail have a happy time with their newborn, but soon Bob’s condition worsens, now that the cancer has reached his brain. Hospice care is arranged for Bob. Bob makes a final visit to Mr. Ho, and asks him what the light is he keeps seeing. Mr. Ho replies it is “the life of the self” and urges him to get his “house in order (life and personal affairs).”
My Life is a 1993 American film starring Michael Keaton, Nicole Kidman, Bradley Whitford, Queen Latifah, Michael Constantine, Rebecca Schull, Mark Lowenthal, Lee Garlington, Toni Sawyer and directed by Bruce Joel Rubin. With a PG-13 rating, this film’s North American box office gross was $28 million.
My Life (1993)
Directed by: Bruce Joel Rubin
Starring: Michael Keaton, Nicole Kidman, Bradley Whitford, Queen Latifah, Michael Constantine, Rebecca Schull, Mark Lowenthal, Lee Garlington, Toni Sawyer
Screenplay by: Bruce Joel Rubin
Production Design by: Neil Spisak
Cinematography by: Peter James
Film Editing by: Richard Chew
Costume Design by: Judy L. Ruskin
Set Decoration by: Anne D. McCulley
Art Direction by: Larry Fulton, Troy Sizemore
Music by: John Barry
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for mature subject matter.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: November 12, 1993
Views: 180
