Skip to footer

'Me Before You' signals its every move a mile away

( PG-13 ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

'Me' stars Emilia Clarke as Lou, a woman who becomes a caregiver to dashing Will (Sam Claflin). Its utter predictability is entirely intentional.

|
Alex Bailey/Warner Bros. Entertainment/AP
'Me Before You' stars Emilia Clarke (l.) and Sam Claflin (r.).
  • By Peter Rainer Film critic

You’ve got to hand it to the people who made “Me Before You,” a four-hankie movie about a gawky working-class caregiver and the glamorous and wealthy quadriplegic she tends to. Every tear is jerked right on cue. Emilia Clarke (“Game of Thrones”) is Louisa “Lou” Clark, who dresses up in florid outfits that appear to be culled from tag sales, and dashing Will Traynor is played by the almost cartoonishly handsome Sam Claflin (“The Hunger Games”). These polar opposites become the be-all in each other’s lives. Of course.

Adapted by Jojo Moyes from her bestseller, and directed by Thea Sharrock, a theater director making her movie debut, “Me Before You” is the kind of weepie that signals its every move a mile away. Its utter predictability is entirely intentional. We are meant to bask in all the usual romance-novel tropes. Any surprise – any artistry – would just get in the way. But did Clarke have to play Lou as such an overbearing smileypuss? 

The only real acting in this movie comes from Janet McTeer and Charles Dance as Will’s aggrieved parents. They bring some ballast to this blubberfest. Grade: C (Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and some suggestive material.)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'Me Before You' signals its every move a mile away
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2016/0603/Me-Before-You-signals-its-every-move-a-mile-away
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe