Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones’s mother of dragons, and handsome Sam Claflin make an attractive couple and share a few cute moments but it is not enough to save ME BEFORE YOU, a three-hankie tragi-romance in the spirit of films like “The Fault in Our Stars,” based in Jojo Moyes’ bestseller novel. Clarke and Claflin play young adults and neither is dying of cancer, but an accident has put Will Traynor (Claflin) in a wheelchair and a deep depression, which his wealthy parents hope to lighten by hiring Louisa “Lou” Clark (Clarke), a bubbling young woman with crazy taste in clothes, as a companion.
ME BEFORE YOU has parallels to romances like “The Fault in Our Stars” but it also shares elements with “My Left Foot,” “The Intouchables,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Leaving Las Vegas,” maybe even a little “Pretty Woman.” On one level, it is the classic mismatched romance. She is a quirky, sunny, klutzy young woman from a working-class family, with crazy taste in clothes and no ambitions or direction in life. He is a handsome but morose, reserved young man from a wealthy, aristocratic family. A one-time successful banker and athletically-gifted world traveler and bon vivant, Will is paralyzed from the neck down and has not been able to come to grips with life confined to a wheelchair. Temperament divides them but the wealth and class difference is wide. His family owns the local castle that is the tourist draw in their little town, while her working-class family struggles to survive on whatever work Lou, her sister, and her parents can find.
Lou has bounced from job to job, doing what she can to help support her close-knit family, which has struggled since her father (Brendon Coyle) lost his job. She applies for – and is surprised to get – a well-paid position as a companion for wheelchair-bound Will Traynor (Sam Claflin), the son of the wealthy aristocratic couple (Janet McTeer and Charles Dance) who own the local medieval “castle” that is the major tourist industry in their little English town. Will is paralyzed from the neck down, is plagued with health problems and often in pain. He has a male nurse/physical therapist to take of his physical care but his parents feel he needs a companion to help lighten his dark moods. That is where the irrepressible Lou comes in.
Emilia Clarke gamely plays the bubbly, slightly rattle-brained Lou Clark, trying to fill the space with her lively personality whenever she’s on screen. Clarke is certainly cute, and she and handsome Sam Claflin as Will Traynor make an attractive couple. As Lou, brown-haired Clarke makes a lot of silly faces, sports some crazy outfits and a few sexy dresses but never gets bare or really sexy. The pair fall in love, as Lou embarks on her goal to make Will smile and have some fun, and Will embarks on a project to broaden Lou’s experience of the world beyond the little village where she has always lived. Will introduces her to sub-titled films, classical music and scuba diving, and the idea she should live boldly.
Their adventures allow the film to take us to some beautiful locations and fill the screen with lovely, romantic images. It is certainly a pretty film. At the film’s best moments, Clarke and Claflin trade quips and joke around, often with wry Claflin teasing sunny Clarke, calling her by her last name like school chums.
But the film suffers from a number of flaws. In fact, as cute as they are together, the feeling between Clarke and Claflin is often more warm friendship than steamy romance. It is hard to see Lou’s attraction to her self-absorbed athlete boyfriend and a number of supporting gifted cast, such as Coyle, are wasted in one-note roles.
Although the film is aiming at bittersweet romance, there is a disturbing undercurrent about disability in this film. Some disability-rights activists have objected, rightly so, to how the disabled man is portrayed, and seems to imply life in a wheelchair is not worth living (Stephen Hawking, anyone?). It gives an unsettling feeling to the film, especially given the topic of assisted suicide, which could have been handled with more thought and sensitivity.
“Game of Thrones” fans know there is fire in this gifted actress and Clarke deserves better than this predictable tragi-romance.
ME BEFORE YOU opens in St. Louis on June 3rd, 2016
OVERALL RATING: 2 1/2 OUT OF 5 STARS
