Movie Review: Me Before You

P/S: Puan M, this is spoilers if you haven't watched the movie!!

'Me Before You', before it was adapted into a movie, was a book of the same title written by Jojo Moyes; the genre falling under realistic fiction according to Wikipedia. It was published back in 2012 and now, it's been turned into a movie.

The story revolves around a cheery girl named Louisa 'Lou' Clark, played by Emilia Clarke who is famous for her role as Daenerys Targaryen in the HBO series 'Game of Thrones'. She lives with her family, consisting of her parents, Bernard and Josie Clark, her grandfather and her sister, Katrina 'Treena' Clark along with Treena's son, Thomas. Lou who is around twenty-eight is the only one with a stable income, working at the Buttered Bun while her boyfriend, Patrick is a personal trainer.

Lou is left with no choice but to return to the Job Center, and she catches on to an offer made by Camilla Traynor, as a caretaker of a quadriplegic man. Lou, even with zero experience in caretaking, takes the job anyway, simply because she needed the money.

She meets with Camilla, who turns out to require assistance with her son, Will, played by Sam Claflin. He is a difficult and sarcastic person at first sight. But Lou does her best, and he soon takes on to her. When Lou finds out that Will is only giving his parents six months before he goes to Switzerland to end his life by assisted suicide because he could not accept that his life, which had been full of adventure and excitement as a hot-shot banker in London, is now tied to a wheelchair. Lou is immediately crestfallen and wants to quit the job but her sister Treena is against it because she wanted to go back to school and their father is having a difficult time looking for a job due to his age.

She stays on but does her best to change Will's mind about ending his life. She is heartbroken when he says that nothing was ever going to change his mind, and quits the job, regretting that she ever met him at all because she was madly in love with him.

Not long after she quits, she begins to realise that Will's six months was almost up. She decides to go to Switzerland, to say goodbye to Will.

It was horribly heartbreaking to watch as Lou (Emilia) cried over Will (Sam). The movie was slightly altered from the book, due to time constraints, and as such, left a few scenes out that might not have made sense had they put it in.

In my opinion, Emilia Clarke fit the role of Lou perfectly, with her quirky traits, crazy clothing, wide grins and all. She was expressive and played the character as if it were her life itself. 

Sam had lost three stone to fit the role of Will Traynor, who had spent almost two years in a wheelchair after his motor accident. He was weak and frail and constantly in pain. Sam's acting was applaudable and left me understanding why Will would ever wish to make such a decision.

The movie itself was a real tear jerker and left me thinking about it long after it ended. There couldn't be a happy ending to the story, which made it even sadder. Will wouldn't have had very long anyway, so in a somewhat twisted way, it was a good ending to their story.