Publications
Partners
OUR RATING
2/5 Stars
WHAT IT'S ABOUT:
A wealthy London man, Will Traynor (Sam Claflin) and a small town girl, Louisa Clarke (Emilia Clarke) form an unlikely bond when she is hired as his caregiver after he is left paralysed and distraught following a car accident. While the complete opposites take time to gel, she's determined to show him life's for living as the two embark on a series of life-altering adventures.
WHAT WE THOUGHT:
Disclaimer: My name is Leandra and I am a bookworm. I have read Me Before You and the follow up After You, as a result I have an emotional connection to these characters.
There’s always a little war between booklovers and movie fans when a film adaption of a bestselling book hits the big screen.
It’s always a risky move, even when you have the author at hand to adapt the screenplay. But only so much of the story can be told in a movie.
The screenplay itself glosses over the real life difficulties that quadriplegics deal with and it also doesn’t allow for proper character development, which in both cases the book does.
So much of the story which made me fall in love with the characters is not told in the movie which makes the story shallow, sickly sweet and not believable.
I can totally see why Emilia Clarke signed on to the play the role of Lou. Lou is the polar opposite of her Game of Thrones character, The Mother of Dragons. She’s spunky; she has a great sense of style and a great personality.
But her character feels overacted, a bit over the top like she’s trying too hard to be that eternal ray of sunshine. A lot of her acting is done through her facial expressions which is distracting and makes her appear caricature like.
Sam Claflin’s acting is just OK. It doesn’t leave much of an impression really. And it’s not that he’s lacking that leading man quality, there’s just really no depth to his character. It’s one dimensional.
The supporting cast who play their parents Janet McTeer, Charles Dance, Brendan Coyle and Samantha Spiro do try a bit harder with making their characters believable.
This might very well be the tearjerker movie of the year for some, but my tears are for the story and the characters that have not been done justice.
In the end it’s just another romantic film not grounded in real life. And a healthy dose of real life is what’s needed when telling this type of love story.
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:
