BRIDGET Jones meets assisted suicide. Now there’s a film that’s never going to get made. Hang on a minute. It just did.
Adapted from the bestselling novel by Jo Jo Moyes, ‘Me Before You’ tells the story of the unexpected relationship that blossoms between a contented small town Englishwoman and the wealthy, paralyzed Londoner who hires her as his caretaker.
As the film opens we are introduced to Will Traynor (played by Sam Claflin), a handsome and successful young city financier.
Almost immediately tragedy strikes when Will is involved in a serious traffic accident. Cut to the English countryside, where we meet down on her luck Louisa Clark (played by Emilia Clarke) who has just been laid off from her job in the local cafe.
In desperate need of employment, she takes a job that nobody else can handle. And it’s here she begins to look after Will, who we meet again, now wheelchair bound and quadriplegic.
As with other movies in this genre, like ‘The Fault in Our Stars’, you get the feeling before long that someone is going to die, or want to, and it’s not difficult to figure out who. It’s no surprise therefore when Louisa learns of Will’s wish to pass by assisted suicide.
The only question being: can she convince him to change his mind and show him that life really is worth living?
The film feels very formulaic and it’s definitely designed for those in need of a good cry. Emilia Clark channels her best Bridget Jones but unfortunately she is no Renée Zellweger, and the script isn’t that funny, so she just ends up knocking things over a lot.
Will even resorts to calling her ‘Clark’ all the time, in the same way that Hugh Grant referred to Bridget as ‘Jones’.
The movie has come under some criticism in recent days from campaigners for disability rights, but my objection is that it simply isn’t very good.
There are some who will love it, you know who you are, bring your tissues. We score it a dry eyed, 2 out of 5 stars.
REVIEW: Paul O’Rourke
