Me Before You – Film Review by Emily Elphinstone

Director: Thea Sharrock
Writers: Jojo Moyes (screenplay), Jojo Moyes (novel)
Stars: Emilia Clarke, Sam Claflin, Janet McTeer

It’s an age old question – will the film be as good as the book? With an all star cast and renowned theatre director Thea Sharrock at the helm, ‘Me Before You’ appears to have all the necessary components, yet it never quite hits the mark.

After losing her job in the local teashop, Louisa Clark (Emilia Clarke) is feeling the pressure to find a good job, desperate to support her family after her father’s redundancy. Running out of options at the job centre, she applies to be a carer for wealthy Will Traynor (Sam Claflin), a quadriplegic who has been left paralysed after a road accident.

[] At first they struggle to understand each other: Louisa is determinedly ‘chatty’ with a penchant for dressing flamboyantly, while Will is determinedly sour. Forced together in the granite-filled designer annexe Will calls home, Louisa gradually helps him to rediscover joy in his life, while he helps her to find purpose. Predictably their loathing eventually turns to love, but the tension mounts when Louisa discovers Will’s plans to end his life. This should provide plenty of material (and the prerequisite amount of tearjerking moments) for a hit film, but there is a sense that the rough edges have been shaved off, leaving the end result a little bland and predictable.

By skipping too quickly through the film’s opening in order to get to the central plot, there is little time to get to know, or really care, about the central characters. With an over-reliance on the script (adapted by the novel’s writer Jojo Moyes) to tell the story; important plot points like the Clark’s money troubles and Will’s physical suffering are transmitted only in awkward lines of exposition, rather than letting the audience actually see it. As the central couple Claflin and Clarke have good chemistry, but they often have too little to work with; and any genuinely moving moments are sadly overwhelmed by the melodramatic soundtrack, which jars with the action. Meanwhile though there is a stunning supporting cast including Janet McTeer and Charles Dance as Will’s stoically supportive parents, and Matthew Lewis as Louisa’s fitness obsessed boyfriend Patrick; they are largely underused.

‘Me Before You’ may be an entertaining and moving film, which may even draw a tear; but it sadly never delves deep enough to really engage the emotions, and ultimately remains too formulaic to be truly satisfying.