Director: Thea Sharrock
Distributor: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Duration: 110 minutes
Me Before You (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Louisa Clark lives a happy life in the English countryside. Even though she is young, she isn’t very ambitious, as she is perfectly happy with her job at The Buttered Bun, the local tea shop, where she serves old ladies their tea and pastries. Her family are only just getting by, as her father is without a job. When she loses her job as well, things don’t look good for them, and thus she’ll do anything to get a new one, as quick as she can.
Lou (Emilia Clarke) ends up at the Traynor’s home, where she’ll be working as a caretaker for their son Will (Sam Claflin). Will was a successful businessman in London, but due to a motor cycle accident, he is paralyzed from the shoulders down. Now he’s living with his parents again, who are probably the richest people in the area and even own the old castle up the hill. For Lou it’s quite a change from what she’s used to, coming from a modest family, with no experience in caretaking whatsoever, but she really needs the job and is prepared to do it with vigor. Will sees it differently though. He doesn’t want someone to take care of him, he just wants his life to go back to how it was two years ago. As that is not an option, he just sits around, waiting for the day to pass. Lou tries to cheer him up and get to know him, but he blocks every effort she makes.
After a while, Will does let her get closer just a little bit, and they begin to get to know each other better and he even begins to like her clumsiness. Lou finally starts to feel useful in her job, and she tries to get Will out of the house as much as she can, so that he can enjoy his life once again. There is definitely a spark between the two, but when Lou overhears a conversation between his parents, her view on things will change completely.
To be honest, we found the story quite a catching one, with a lot of variation between cheerful scenes with Lou’s amiable character, and much darker scenes where you can clearly see that Will has a really difficult time living with the mental pain of not being able to move and being taken care of all the time. Up to a certain point, it is quite predictable (if you haven’t read the book on which the film is based of course), but nonetheless we were surprised by certain plot twists and also side characters such as Lou’s boyfriend Patrick (Matthew Lewis) make sure that the film has a more airy side to it as well.
Emilia Clarke’s character Lou is one you’ll probably love or hate, with her colorful outfits, very flexible eyebrows and clumsy but honest qualities. Clarke is rather convincing though, and we found her very enjoyable to watch. The chemistry with Sam Claflin looked very good, yet we weren’t always that fond of his acting. Overall, all actors did an amazing job though, and when experienced actors such as Charles Dance and Brendan Coyle pass the revue as well, it can only add to the quality of the film.
Me Before You is an adaptation of the book by Jojo Moyes, and thus it didn’t come as a surprise that the bonus features included ‘From Page To Screen’, which is a short explanation of how the film came to be. Other than that there are some deleted scenes and some outtakes to enjoy, but all bonus features together only last about fifteen minutes in total. It’s not a lot, but we didn’t really mind that much as the film itself isn’t the kind that needs very many extras to stand out.
Conclusion
If you are a fan of romantic dramas, Me Before You will definitely be right up your alley. It tells a catching story that has more to it than your average romantic film, and Emilia Clarke is just very fun to watch because of her cheerfulness and clumsiness. The extras don’t add that much to the film, but the movie can stand very well on its own. You’ll have to see for yourself, but we sure liked this one.
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