The fact that Will will never physically improve is repeated often, as though that justifies his final choice. The fact that Jojo Moyes spent so much time researching the physical nature of quadriplegia but didn’t talk to any quadriplegic individuals about their own experiences is telling.
#ME BEFORE YOU SERIES BOOK 4 MOVIE#
Just kidding, the movie says, disabled people can never truly live life to the fullest. The entire film is spent proving Will can be the person that Louisa needs, only to undercut that at the end. Live boldly-unless you’re disabled? Don’t settle-for caring for a loved one who’s disabled? The director doesn’t want to show the difficulties of Will’s life, only to have him kill himself over these very struggles.
“The message of the film is to live boldly, push yourself, don’t settle.”īut with the film ending in Will’s death, the entire movie collapses in on itself in a mess of hypocrisy and contradiction. “It’s a fictional story,” Sharrock backpedals to The Hollywood Reporter. The director, Thea Sharrock, did not want to show “Will being taken in and out of his chair, or put in a hoist over a bath” so she would not give the “impression… of difficulty” or “make audiences too uncomfortable.” Essentially, the death of a disabled individual is presented as more “normal” than the life of one. Stepping back from the narrative, it isn’t Will’s choice to die, but Jojo Moyes’, the able-bodied author of the book and screenplay-who admits she had never met a person with quadriplegia before writing the book.įundamentally, Me Before You is a story about a disabled person killing themselves-for the “greater good” of other characters-written, directed, and acted by abled people for abled people. Because of his disability, the pushback against suicide is muted. Throughout the film, characters pop up to reinforce the idea that Will’s right to choose is paramount. And he does-leaving heaps of money to Lou, who is seen happily traipsing around Paris at the end of the film. However, in the end, Will reveals that he’s going through with the plan he’s had since the beginning of the film: to kill himself at Dignitas, a real-life assisted suicide center in Switzerland. The movie follows along rom-com lines as the two get to know one another, going to concerts and on trips. The premise is that Will Traynor is a wealthy quadriplegic struggling with depression Louisa Clark is a “free spirit” with questionable fashion sense who becomes Will’s caretaker. But with every gushing review I read, the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach grows.Īlthough the first part of the movie sets up what might have been a decent film, Me Before You pulls the rug out from under its audience with a disgusting bait-and-switch-one that’s particularly callous and damaging toward disabled viewers. Me Before You opened two weekends ago, hyped as “the most romantic film of the year.” Entertainment Weekly called it “charming” in a B+ review, and according to Rotten Tomatoes, 80 percent of audiences loved it.
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