Me Before You

**1/2

Reviewed by: Angus Wolfe Murray

Me Before You
"The plot behaves itself and is traditionally predictable"

This happened to Stephen Hawking. The nurse falls in love with the patient.

What's new in the queue, babe?

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Everybody knows that Me Before You was a tear-stained best seller, which means... Well, you know what it means. Happy sad, or happy happy?

The corny pop songs, the sexy undertones, the impossible romance, the perfect dream shadowed in darkness by an impending nightmare, heartbreak or heartburn, the ultimate choice.

Lou (Emilia Clarke) is the nicest nice girl on the planet. Will (Sam Claflin) used to be a sporty ex-public school investment banker who gets run over by a motorbike and ends up in a wheely, paralysed from the neck down.

Lou loses her job as a waitress through no fault of her own and is chosen by Will's posh mum (Janet McTeer) to take over as his carer, despite having no experience, nor medical training. What she has is heart and one of those bubbly personalities that could drive a depressive to drink.

Will is used to silver spoon maintenance. He lives with his parents in a castle - or is it the dower house? He whines a lot about the great life he used to lead, skiing at Val d'Isere and all that stuff.

Lou is from a council house. Her mother is religious in a good way and her dad has just been made redundant from the garage. They are a close family, more touchy and certainly more feely than Will's who try to do the right thing by throwing money at it, typical of the repressed upper classes.

The plot behaves itself and is traditionally predictable. Lou is like Sally Hawkins in Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky and Clarke fits the part to perfection, small and bouncy, with a smile that would make the Cheshire cat blush.

Claflin is too good looking to bother with character building and since Lou's official boyfriend is such an arse it's game over after the first set.

Reviewed on: 01 Jun 2016
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A woman forms a friendship with a recently paralysed man.
Amazon link

Director: Thea Sharrock

Writer: Jojo Moyes, based on her novel

Starring: Emilia Clarke, Sam Claflin, Janet McTeer, Charles Dance, Stephen Peacocke, Brendan Coyle, Jenna Coleman, Vanessa Kirby

Year: 2016

Runtime: 110 minutes

BBFC: 12A - Adult Supervision

Country: US

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