Perfect (adj.): Lacking nothing essential to the whole; complete of its nature or kind; being without defect or blemish. See also: what Lanie Kerrigan thinks her life is before learning that she has one week to live.

Kerrigan thinks she has it all: the perfect career (television anchor), the perfect boyfriend (baseball player), the perfect life…or something like it. But what do these superficial assets truly add up to for Angelina Jolie’s character?

That’s what she’s about to find out in Life…or Something Like It, which hits theaters tomorrow.

“My hair is my trademark–just like the ‘I don’t like to shower’ look is yours,” taunts Kerrigan to her co-worker, rugged-but-sexy Pete the cameraman (Edward Burns). At her materialistic peak in the film, Miss Kerrigan flaunts her big blonde hair with big pursed lips to match. She is seen strutting around in a gaudy giraffe-print coat in the middle of the afternoon, for goodness sake. Classic Jolie if you ask me, and I’m not just referring to the characters she plays.

Yet the stylish journalist is shocked–which means her lips become even more obviously collagen-injected–when she discovers from Prophet Jack that she has one week to live. This discovery leads Kerrigan to rethink her priorities in life, and, prompted by Pete, question her perfect existence as she knows it.

Although the plot is somewhat predictable, as many Hollywood productions are, the main idea lingers as you leave the theater: what is life?

“A minute seems like a really long time to waste,” Kerrigan says. Every moment we spend with our family, our friends, ourselves-they should all be relished as if they’ll never happen again. Because they won’t–once that moment is gone, it is gone. A flashy career or superstar boyfriend does not qualify a person’s life as successful.

The ideas behind Life… are quality, and I could at least stand to watch Angelina Jolie up on the big screen, big blonde hair and all. However, she was much more believable as the superficial character than the super-spirited version of herself.

And Edward Burns…well, he’s just plain adorable.