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Parents' Guide to

Life or Something Like It

By Nell Minow, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Old fashioned date movie for older teens.

Movie PG-13 2002 115 minutes
Life or Something Like It Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 13+

Based on 1 parent review

jumpinbini
jumpinbini Adult
April 9, 2008
age 13+
This is a story of an uptight, almost neurotic news reporter who seems to have everything that society deems as successful-- on the high end of the corporate ladder, a fiance, and financial stability. She runs into a psychic one day who tells her that she will die in a short amount of time and she has some sort of rebirth. The ultimate message of the movie is to live your life to the fullest and take risks. You never know, you might have been living your life the way you THOUGHT you wanted it, not the way that will make you the happiest.
See all 1 parent review

What's the Story?

In LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT, Angelina Jolie plays Lanie, a television news reporter in Seattle who thinks her life is just about perfect. For her, that means a great apartment, great friends, a great fiance, and a shot at her dream job on the network. But she is sent to do a story on a homeless man who predicts the future, and he tells her what the score will be in the football game to be played later that day. He tells her that it will hail the next morning. And he tells her that she will not get the job she wants, and has only a week to live. When the first two predictions come true, she begins to think that she might just have a week to live, and that her life is not so perfect after all.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1 ):
Kids say (1 ):

The script has no surprises, but Jolie and Burns have a nice rhythm as they constantly ask each other to define their words. It is easy to believe that they would both be attracted to someone who doesn't let them get away with easy charm. The biggest surprise is Jolie in a role clearly designed for someone like Meg Ryan or Sandra Bullock. She doesn't let Lanie get too cute and shows us Lanie's vulnerability, inescurity, and her capacity for giddy joy.

Where did Lanie get her ideas about what constituted perfection? There is some nonsense about sibling rivalry with a sister who has a rich husband and a fancy house. What makes more sense is that Lanie gets her idea of perfection from the very place she seeks it: television. With an indestructible platinum helmet hairdo, flawless muscle tone, and a baseball player fiance, she's a cross between Marilyn Monroe and Barbara Walters. Her idol is Deborah Connors (Stockard Channing), the queen of interviewers, who always gets her subjects to cry. The prospect of having no more time makes Lainie think about what she was postponing. The first surprise is who she asks for advice. She turns for help to a man she thought she hated, Pete (Edward Burns), her cameraman. He tells her to talk to the people she cares about most.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about how we decide what "perfection" means to each of us and whose approval matters most to us. How do we live in a way that balances planning for the future with recognizing what is important in the present. How do our family dynamics transfer over into our work relationships? Why didn't Lanie understand how important she was to her father?

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