Plot:
Twenty-six-year-old Louisa Clark lives with her working-class family. Unambitious and with few qualifications, she feels constantly outshone by her younger sister, Treena, an outgoing single mother. Louisa, who helps support her family, loses her job at a local cafe. She goes to the Job Centre and, after several failed attempts, is offered a unique employment opportunity: help care for Will Traynor, a successful, wealthy, and once-active young man who was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident two years earlier. Will's mother, Camilla, hires Louisa despite her lack of experience, believing Louisa can brighten Will's spirits. Louisa meets Nathan, who cares for Will's medical needs, and Will's father, a friendly upper-class businessman whose marriage to Camilla is strained.
Louisa and Will's relationship starts out rocky due to his bitterness and resentment over being disabled. Their relationship worsens after Will's ex-girlfriend, Alicia, and best friend Rupert reveal that they are getting married. Under Louisa's care, Will gradually becomes more communicative and open-minded as they share experiences together. Louisa notices Will's scarred wrists and later overhears his mother and sister discussing how he attempted suicide shortly after Camilla refused his request to end his life through Dignita, a Swiss-based assisted suicide organization. Horrified by his attempt, Camilla promised to honour her son's wish, but only if he agreed to live six more months. Camilla intends to prove that, in time, he will believe his life's worth living.
Louisa conceals knowing about Will and Camilla's agreement. However, she tells Treena, and together they devise ways that will help convince Will to abandon his death wish. Over the next few weeks, Will loosens up and lets Louisa shave his beard and cut his shaggy hair. Louisa begins taking Will on outings and the two grow closer.
Will and Louisa have frequent talks, and she learns that Will has travelled extensively; his favourite place is a cafe in Paris. Noticing how limited her life is and that she has few ambitions, Will tries to motivate Louisa to change. Louisa reveals that she was gang-raped as a teen, resulting in her reclusive nature and wariness of the world beyond her hometown.
Louisa continues seeing her longtime boyfriend, Patrick, though they eventually break up due to her relationship with Will. Meanwhile, Louisa's father loses his job, causing more financial difficulties. Fortunately, Mr. Traynor offers Mr. Clark a position. Louisa realises that Will is trying to help her secure her freedom from her family. The two attend Alicia and Rupert's wedding where they dance and flirt. Will tells Louisa that she is the only reason he gets up in the morning.
Louisa convinces Will to go on a holiday with her, but before they can leave, Will contracts near fatal pneumonia. Louisa cancels the plans for a whirlwind trip. Instead, she takes Will to the island of Mauritius. The night before returning home, Louisa tells Will that she loves him. Will says he wants to confide something, but she admits that she already knows about his plans with Dignitas. Will says their time together has been special, but he cannot bear to live in a wheelchair. He will be following through with his plans. Angry and hurt, Louisa storms off and does not speak to him for the remainder of the trip. When they return home, Will's parents are pleasantly surprised by his good physical condition. Louisa, however, resigns as his caretaker, and they understand that Will intends to end his life.
On the night of Will's flight to Switzerland, Louisa visits him one last time. They agree that the past six months have been the best in their lives. He dies shortly after in the clinic, and it is revealed that he left Louisa a considerable inheritance, meant to continue her education and to fully experience life. The novel ends with Louisa at a cafe in Paris, reading Will's last words to her in a letter, that tell her to 'live well'. - taken from Wikipedia
Me before you trailer
Drama Queen's thoughts
I went on a weekend with my friend to catch the movie Me before you in a theatre. After the movie, I feel conflicted with the moral value which send the message that it is alright to opt for assist suicide when life is too tough for you. Honestly, I read through several review of the movie through the internet and most of them were against the idea of assist suicide, some even backlash the movie for being coward and encouraging death cult.
Humanitarian organisation even called for a boycott of the film, calling it one of Hollywood ideal pushing people to death culture in order to generate cash into their pockets. This moive screenplay was written by the New York Time bestseller Jojo Moye, who is the author of the novel Me before you. She received criticism for her uninspiring portray of people with disabilities. I read a review by a quadriplegic woman and it spark a series of debate and controversies about this topic. I think the review by the author was insightful and it's worth to ponder about her point of view over a meal. If you are interested, this is the link. -http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/movies/a59621/me-before-you-controversy-op-ed/
We as able bodied people are fortunate to live our life without going through the nightmare of a person with disabilities. Therefore, although we can emphatize the person with disability, we will never ever going to understand what they are going through. No matter how hard we try to emphasise with them, we can never understand the stress that they went through as a matter of fact and it's heartbreaking for the caretakers. The agony, bitterness, resentment that they felt and the truth they are force to accept the reality that things will never go back to where it used to be.
In my opinion, if Will died in the motorcycle accident, it could have been a relief for him instead of living his entire life trapped in his disability. He obviously can't live his life after the accident, which is something that we can relate to since he used to live a luxurious and active lifestyle before the tragedy happened.
The movie portray Will as a person that is determined to die and nothing will change his mind. He simply cannot accept his fate and is having a serious depression. Even though he open up to Louisa and fall in love with the girl, it is not a reason strong enough to change his mind about death. He live his life for himself, and make the final decision for himself because it is afterall his life. Yes, the movie is depressing and a dark cloud is always hanging in our heads. However, the question to ponder over: what do you think about assist death?
We have our own moral values and different reaction to a certain situation that we can never change. Am I saying that assist suicide is acceptable? Absolutely not. I simply thought that there is different side to a coin. In my objective view, it's true that we all holds different views and beliefs. However, we need to learn one thing and that is value our own life.
The movie tagline: live boldly, live well, just live. That is a contradiction because all the time we see Will living a "selfish" life and one that he would rather abandon than to live on for his loved ones. In the end, we already predicted that it's going to be a sad ending.
This movie is somewhat similar to the other movie - The fault in our stars. Except the story developed in a different way. The fault in our stars lean towards a person with disability trying her best to live a fulfilling life instead of grumbling about her tragic life. On the other hand, Me before you is about a person who simply cannot look beyond his own disability and wallow in depression.
The romance in Me before You is kind of cute and funny but is not realistic. It's like a fairytale story of Cinderella. The poor girl meet a guy, fall in love and get a share of his inheritance to finally live a life of freedom without the financial burden of her family. Will's point of view is the memories that we shared will be in our heart and the best thing you can do for me is to let me go. Will's love for Louisa is to set her free and let her live her life boldly just like her bumble bee tights. Louisa's love for Will is to let him go and set him free from his burden.
Sam Calflin is a able bodied actor who plays the role of the quadriplegic leading man Will Traynor, he is a good looking chap and he did play his role convincingly well. It's considered good that he is able to play this character even though he is not disabled. He shares a cute but forgettable romance with our beautiful Emilia Clake who acted as Lou Clark in the movie. The cast did well in their respective role, but the storyline could have been better with a more realistic plot and more scenes of the struggles that Will went through.
At the end of the movie, my friend commented that the movie pace is slow. The only good thing that Louisa has found amist the misfortune that she encounter is that she can finally live her life boldly, experiencing and doing things that Will can never do again. Yes, she has to live well in will's place.
In conclusion, I would recommend this movie if you are able to keep an open mind about the assist suicide which recently caused so much controversy. If you can look beyond that moral value meter, it's a watchable romance-comedy movie with some occasional soft rock music played at the background.
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