Me Before You is a 2016 production from New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The screenplay was written by the same writer as the book it is based on, Jojo Moyes. The film was directed by Thea Sharrock and starred the likes of Emilia Clarke, Sam Claflin, Vanessa Kirby, Janet McTeer and Charles Dance. Me Before You received a 7.4/10 on IMDb and a 51 Metascore.
The Story
The story starts full of hope. As a viewer, you just know that Lou and Will are going to fall in love and expectedly live happily ever after. The way the story gets to the point where they fall in love kind of bothered me. The movie makes it seems like Will is buying Lou’s love by giving her father a job, taking her on trips and generally outdoing Lou’s boyfriend at the time, Patrick. Patrick is portrayed as the worst boyfriend on the planet but if you look from his perspective, his girlfriend is spending six full days a week with another, richer man. And when the time comes, even after Patrick tries to make amends for his behaviour, they split apart after six years together.
However, getting Lou wasn’t enough for Will. We get all these nice moments between the two, growing closer and closer. But even Lou couldn’t change his mind. It was a bit of shock for me as I expected this to be the kind of love story that ends happily together. And he seems so happy to be with her. Apparently, his disabilities are such a big problem for him that they couldn’t stay together. That made me feel bad for our protagonists.
My reaction would be like Will’s mother’s reaction when she knew Lou didn’t change his mind. Must be horrible for parents to go through. That moment, at the airport, when they came back from the trip was so powerful for that reason. The parents were joyful and thought everything would be different from now on but it went the opposite way. In the end, Will chooses this path partly because he believes it is the best for Lou, I know that, but it still makes me sad.
The Characters
Our main character is Louise Clark, an very optimistic and joyful young woman who happy with her life even though others may say it’s dull. Seeing as Will Traynor is always the sad and unoptimistic one in every scene, the whole kind of depends on Lou’s character for some joy. I feel that Emilia Clarke was cast perfectly for this role. She manages to bring a sheer amount of joy and not make it seem like she pretending. It helps make to movie enjoyable as it creates fun and hopeful moments in a mostly pretty dark plot.
Will Traynor is her exact counterpart in this sense. He brings the mood down in every scene with his unwillingness to accept his life as it is. That makes him come across as an über asshole, some scenes got me thinking: ‘How can you live with yourself if your this much of a pain in the ass to others?’ I guess I could understand why he would act this way, but come on, she tries so hard to make him happy and even her best attempts get little more than a smile. That doesn’t create an enjoyable movie for me.
The Production
One thing I noticed from the start of the movie was Lou comedic role in this film. I get the feeling the writer tried to make her a comedic relief character alongside her dramatic role as a lover and all that stuff. Add the fact that there were a bunch of bad or unneeded jokes that threw me off track and you get some poor dialogue.