Film review: Me Before You
In this weeks film review I am reviewing the 2016 romantic comedy Me Before You directed by Thea Sharrock and adapted by English author Jojo Moyes from her 2012 novel of the same name. The film stars Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin in the lead roles with the supporting cast including Steve Peacocke, Janet McTeer, Charles Dance, Brendan Coyle, Jenna Coleman, Samantha Spiro and Matthew Lewis.
Two years after Will Traynor (Sam Claflin) is paralyzed from the neck down in an accident Lou Clark (Emilia Clark), a happy and outgoing woman, is hired as a his companion. She has no experience but Will's mother (Janet McTeer) believes her cheery personality will lift his spirits. Will spends most of his time with his nurse Nathan (Steve Peacocke) who assists him with everything physical and helps Lou to understand everything. Although he initially acts coldly towards Lou for the first few weeks, Will starts to soften when Lou is frank and honest with him, seeing past the injury. After a particularly open where discussion Lou confesses that she hasn't travelled much and hasn't got many hobbies, whereas Will had many interests and travelled everywhere, Will urges Lou to broaden her horizons and live her life as fully as possible.
I really enjoyed this brilliant film, I loved the fact that this was a different type of love story and the acting in this was amazing. The fact that Will has been disabled in an accident gives two different sides to the character with him previously having a really active life and now he can't move, it leaves him feeling like he is missing out and unfortunately decides that the only option is assisted suicide. Then with Lou becoming a companion for his loneliness and becoming a friend who wants to make a difference then eventually falling in love with him makes for a more interesting and prolonged love story. Mostly the development of the love story felt very natural and the fact that it formed out of a situation that was not created for love to bloom made the development from acquaintance to friend to being in love much more interesting, especially with the ending meaning that they could never have a relationship but Will still made a huge impact on Lou's life regardless of this and assists her in broadening her horizons.
As I said above the acting in this film is amazing, I have always been a fan of Sam Claflin and already thought he was a brilliant actor, this just propelled him even higher. Firstly in a physical capacity this role would have been really challenging as Sam normally plays really active characters but here it was the complete opposite. Not only did he manage to be as still as possible, he even managed to make the awkward head movements look natural as if he had to move his head that way anyway. Then the emotional side of the role, at the beginning Will is cold, distant and depressed with everyone and over the course of the film he becomes happy, open and friendly, Sam played this perfectly making you really believe the feeling being presented. One of the best parts of the performance given by Sam is the sarcasm of the character, he stays sarcastic throughout but as his mood improves his sarcasm evolves from biting to cheerful, again pulled off perfectly.
Similarly I have enjoyed all of Emilia Clarke's performances and she definitely brought a lot of brightness to the role of Lou, perfectly pulling off the charismatic, upbeat and cheery personality of the character. What was most interesting was how Emilia brought the cheerful nature of the role even in the parts when the situation was rather dire. This does also leads to the chemistry between the actors to give the performances and show how the relationship between them develops, they also seem to bounce off of each other really well to make Will and Lou really come to life.
In addition the supporting cast really enhance the film, in particular Steve Peacocke as Nathan being particularly down to earth and frank about the situation but still encouraging and helping Lou with Will. Also credit to Janet McTeer and Charles Dance as Will's parents who give the perfect performance of the incredible difficult characters, with so much emotion with anger, fear and hopelessness while also bringing across the pure love they have for their son.
This film is definitely staying in our collection and will be watched again.
My rating for Me Before You is 8.5/10
Before I go further I will say that there will be spoilers, so if you intend to watch the film and don't like spoilers wait to see the film first.
Lou overhears a conversation between Will's mother and father (Charles Dance) that reveals Will has given them six months before checking into Dignitas is Switzerland for assisted suicide. Lou decides to try and change his mind, with Nathan's help, by organising various trips and adventures to show Will that life is worth living despite his disability. Will gradually becomes more communicative and open to her plans, they develop strong feelings for each other making Lou's boyfriend Patrick (Matthew Lewis) jealous leading to the end of their seven year relationship. While on a luxurious trip to Mauritius Will informs Lou that he still intends to go to Switzerland as he sees himself as living half a life but he wants a full life and he asks Lou to go with him. Heartbroken she tells Will's parents that she is quitting as soon as they land back home and goes straight home. Lou is encouraged to go to see will after not speaking for several days, she discovers he has already left and goes to Switzerland to be with Will for his last moments.
A few weeks later Lou is sitting in Will's favourite café in Paris reading a letter from him, he has left her some money to follow her dreams and ends the letter with 'just live'.
A few weeks later Lou is sitting in Will's favourite café in Paris reading a letter from him, he has left her some money to follow her dreams and ends the letter with 'just live'.
I really enjoyed this brilliant film, I loved the fact that this was a different type of love story and the acting in this was amazing. The fact that Will has been disabled in an accident gives two different sides to the character with him previously having a really active life and now he can't move, it leaves him feeling like he is missing out and unfortunately decides that the only option is assisted suicide. Then with Lou becoming a companion for his loneliness and becoming a friend who wants to make a difference then eventually falling in love with him makes for a more interesting and prolonged love story. Mostly the development of the love story felt very natural and the fact that it formed out of a situation that was not created for love to bloom made the development from acquaintance to friend to being in love much more interesting, especially with the ending meaning that they could never have a relationship but Will still made a huge impact on Lou's life regardless of this and assists her in broadening her horizons.
As I said above the acting in this film is amazing, I have always been a fan of Sam Claflin and already thought he was a brilliant actor, this just propelled him even higher. Firstly in a physical capacity this role would have been really challenging as Sam normally plays really active characters but here it was the complete opposite. Not only did he manage to be as still as possible, he even managed to make the awkward head movements look natural as if he had to move his head that way anyway. Then the emotional side of the role, at the beginning Will is cold, distant and depressed with everyone and over the course of the film he becomes happy, open and friendly, Sam played this perfectly making you really believe the feeling being presented. One of the best parts of the performance given by Sam is the sarcasm of the character, he stays sarcastic throughout but as his mood improves his sarcasm evolves from biting to cheerful, again pulled off perfectly.
Similarly I have enjoyed all of Emilia Clarke's performances and she definitely brought a lot of brightness to the role of Lou, perfectly pulling off the charismatic, upbeat and cheery personality of the character. What was most interesting was how Emilia brought the cheerful nature of the role even in the parts when the situation was rather dire. This does also leads to the chemistry between the actors to give the performances and show how the relationship between them develops, they also seem to bounce off of each other really well to make Will and Lou really come to life.
In addition the supporting cast really enhance the film, in particular Steve Peacocke as Nathan being particularly down to earth and frank about the situation but still encouraging and helping Lou with Will. Also credit to Janet McTeer and Charles Dance as Will's parents who give the perfect performance of the incredible difficult characters, with so much emotion with anger, fear and hopelessness while also bringing across the pure love they have for their son.
This film is definitely staying in our collection and will be watched again.
My rating for Me Before You is 8.5/10
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