me before you the screen adaptation of Jojo Moyes' best-selling novel starring
Sam Claflin and Emilia Clarke is so clearly marketed as a romantic weepfest
that the screening swag they handed us going in was a box of kleenex branded with
the poster of their gorgeous faces on it. Does this movie with these two beautiful
people deserve to find a willing weeping audience?
I'm Leslie Combemale, Cinema Siren, and this is my review:
tell me something about what anything
well when I was a little girl, my mum got me a pair of theese wellies and I
refused to take them off
I wore them in bed and in the bath
all summer long my favorite outfit was these wellies and my bumblebee tights
bumblebee tights? With black and white stripes. OH GOD.
I really really really liked having stripy legs so what happened to these
gorgeous wellies and stripy tights? Well, I outgrew them.
I broke my heart and they don't make these tights any more... not for grown women
anyway
strange, that. Oh you can mock me...did you ever love anything that much?
yes yes it
recently disabled Englishman Will Trayner
Sam Claflin has lost his joie de vivre.
so much so that his doting billionaire parents are hiring an emotional
cheerleader to brighten his new daily life
enter Louisa Clark (Emilia Clarke of Game of Thrones), a completely unprepared,
inexperienced 20-something who sees life through Technicolor glasses and
desperately needs a paycheck
she's obviously going to change Will's life for the better and bring back his
will to live
Or is she? Either way the audience is there to see the sparks fly
and we do. Serenaded by a soundtrack of sublime sadness. Bogged down by
sentimentality and barely touching the surface of the challenges inherent with
quadriplegia or the right-to-die movement all the juice of this romantic
drama is to be found in the performances of the leads and the costars looking at
this cast is like battle of the brit heavy fandoms. Clark of Game of Thrones and
Claflin of the Hunger Games are joined by Jenna Coleman of Doctor Who playing
Clark's sister
Matthew Lewis famous for the Harry Potter series plays Clark's insufferable
boyfriend
the parental figures played by Charles Dance, also of Game of Thrones,
Janet Mcteer, of Maleficent, and Brendan Coyle of Downton Abbey or all BBC
regulars even Joanna Lumley of AbFab makes a cameo. For fans of British film
and TV actors, this weepfest is an all-star smorgasbord
and they all work overtime to create magnetism pathos and meaning between
characters
that's what saves ME BEFORE YOU.
Clarke, as Louisa Clark, is like a one-woman argument against Botox.
She has more expressions in her eyebrows the most have in all their 43 facial muscles
she has such luminosity that even her pervasive smiles are not off-putting or
cloying. They add to the characters appeal, making believable her turning Claflin's
ultra rich ultra handsome
grumpus Will Trayner from inconsolable to smitten in such short order.
Clarks character has quirky, delightful outfits that telegraph her optimistic
nature yet they belie the fact that she has to work for her family to keep food on
the table
are those shoes she's wearing Irregular Choice? If so, each pair carries a price tag
fashion-forward viewers will recognize as unattainable hefty.
Claflin has an even tougher job finding a believable arc amidst the fluffy
verbal exchanges and a story sorely lacking substantive representation of
his hopelessness
as to that, Will being a newly paralyzed man who has absolutely every financial
resource suggest no one with that disability could possibly find their way
to a life worth living. Through sheer force of charm alone
Claflin puts the audience into his money and manicured corner, to wish him whatever
happiness
he and his chipper miss can muster. It's not like the history of invalid love
stories is rife with lurid details or the minutiae about their ailments
1970's Love Story, for better or worst one of the best known of the
sub-genre, barely touches on the Leukemia that strikes down the heroine...Of course
that movie also got called out for ignoring the specifics of their
experience. These challenges, in real life, often enrich and deepen a relationship.
if you're looking for a movie that better represents the struggles around
an ailment or disability, the recent Miss You Already, directed by Catherine
Hardwicke, is a better example.
I give ME BEFORE YOU a C. skimming over depth in favor of a shining lovely yet
sad love story isn't a crime,
it's just a disappointment. Still, those who love the book, or love seeing
beautiful people playing at loving each other will find sweetness and charm
enough to satisfy. for Cinema Siren,
I'm Leslie Combemale.
CINEMA SIREN....