Film Review: Me Before You Is A Classic Tear-jerker That Analyzes The Question of Suicide
Yes, I am a woman. Yes, I love sappy “chick-flick” films where chivalry is not dead and two hearts unite under cliché circumstances. Yes, I DO! So SUE ME! There is a formula to romantic films that rarely is changed but is always welcomed: the tearjerk. Me Before You aims to make you cry and become “googly- eyed” by dreamy romance. It absolutely succeeds in its initiative.
When Will Traynor ( Sam Claflin) is left paraplegic from being hit by a motorcycle, his parents decide to hire Louisa Clarke (Emilie Clarke) as his nurse/paid friend. In typical romantic cheesiness, they slowly fall in love as Will begins to let his inner walls down. Emilia Clarke is fantastic as Louisa. She portrays her character as humble, bright, and sweetly optimistic. She is not annoyingly positive but genuinely hopeful. At times, when you see someone always aiming for the bright side, they can come off as devoid of pain or to “kitschy”, but Emilia makes Louisa an endearing, lovely woman. You feel as if you are watching your best friend fall in love and cannot stop cheering her on, which make her heartbreak also felt as yours.
The main focus of Me Before You is William’s desire to die, and Louisa’s persistent attempt to motivate him to live. As they fall in love, you see William’s lighter spirit, and want him to want to live, as well. In the beginning, he is rightfully bitter and angry over his accident, which makes him irritable and un-bearingly negative towards the ones he loves. Sam Claflin is also likable as William and does an excellent job in making William’s vast character growth seem subtle and natural in a 2 hour and 30 minute film. William’s transition from a dark depression to a renewed joy is handled excellently by the actor in assuring that is does not come off forced. Instead, it comes off like a miracle. Thus, the tragedy of Me Before You is realizing that even miracles of love are not always enough to fully revive a person’s love for life.
Many protests have surrounded the film for its portrayal of a disabled person, William, and his penchant to commit suicide because he feels his life is over as a paraplegic. I understand the protests, but still do not believe that William promotes a mass idea of being handicapped means literal death or you should kill yourself because you are disabled. William’s desire to die does not come from his disability, but a lack of inner strength. He is obsessed with his old, active life, and the “James Bond” kind of image he had. He was an adrenaline junkie, a rich boy, and an aficionado with women. He traveled the world doing whatever he wanted, and had the youth and looks to get away with it. He is constantly obsessing over his old life and what could have been, which makes any joy or love he receives welcomed but not enough. Thus, William is not a character that promotes disability as a death sentence, but negativity or egoism as one.
For me, Claflin’s character of Will teaches a valuable lesson: you cannot help someone that does not want to be helped. For all the love and encouragement William has from his parents, Louisa, and his nurse Nathan ( played adorably by Steve Peacocke), he cannot move on or forward with his life. He is spiritually stuck on what he was and thought he would be. Even writing about his emotional/ mental block is tragic to me. No amount of love from his present was good enough for him compared to the amount of dreams he had for his future or in his past. William simply does not have the resilience to be in in his present and accept his now, which included hi handicap. Although, Louisa shows him how to hope and dream again, Will wants to leave this world as he feels he has nothing to offer it anymore. Frankly, every person in that theater was crying at seeing someone so rich in spirit feel so low about himself. Claflin makes William funny and secretly kind, but also unaware of how deserving he is as person to feel welcomed in this world.
Me Before You may be about a disabled person falling in love with his nurse, but it is also about a depressed person trying to fall back in love with life. The film goes beyond Claflin’s disability to discuss the topic of suicide, and whether any person can or should say to their self that their value to the world is null. As I walked out of the the theater, I saw everyone wiping their tears and questioning their discomfort. Like anyone, whom has struggled with a suicidal loved one or even their own suicidal thoughts, it is difficult to see the light of a person/ life when he or she does not. You wish you could show them their own magnificence, but their suicidal thoughts come from their inability to see it. Again, not one person in that theater left without a tear and a wonder over this beautiful yet heartbreaking love story.
Me Before You Comes Out Theatrically on June 3. I highly recommend it to anyone in need of a good cry and a deep thought.
