The movie Me Before You – Why we can all count our blessings.

Its been done before – think the French movie Untouchable or the amazing Asian film Guzarrish – so try to see those two also if you find you “like” Me before You.  The best-selling novel Me Before You was written by Jo Jo Moyes (an unusual name but a less than unusual plot) and the film stars Sam Claflin as Will (Snow White and the Huntsman) and Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clark as Louisa or as Will calls her – “Clark”. Love seems to abound in sagas involving fit and healthy individuals caring for quadraplegics or paraplegics as in a cruel twist the caring person revels in their normality and tries their hardest to make the life of the wheelchair- bound more happy and less daunting.  Now to concentrate just on Me Before You – Will’s family own a castle and he has a special male nurse but needs a companion for other things – along comes Clark fresh out of working in a café which has gone bust, and Clark has an eclectic and lively interest in fashion which seems to belie the relatively low income Clark must have been on before taking on the new well-paid position of making Will’s days lighter and more bearable.  Just going back to the start of the saga – Will had a well paid job in the City and was a keen sports enthusiast before he was run into by a motorbike when crossing the road ensuing in his becoming a quadraplegic.  His girlfriend not only breaks up with him but invites him and Clark to her wedding.  The character of Clark is feisty, funny, a little simple but incredibly well-meaning as she plots and schemes to make Will’s life more exciting knowing that after overhearing a discussion, Will aims to end his life in a Swiss clinic soon.  Not inevitably, but the couple do develop a love affair and Clark rides around the park sitting on the “unfeeling” knees of her charge and they kiss and exchange romantic thoughts. Clark also dreams up a few outings and a holiday for Will which causes the break-up of her own relationship with a boyfriend who is disappointingly portrayed as being in some way inferior, even sporting an accent which does not gel with that of the rest of the cast.  Will’s father is played by Charles Dance, and as a castle owner, he is aristocratic and bears a surprising resemblance to Prince Philip.  His wife – Will’s mother, is also well portrayed and there is a sense of irony about the privileges of these people and the cruel hand that fate has dealt to Will, not to mention that throughout the saga Will is positively beefcake material and so the love affair that ensues is more poignant and angst ridden.  I cannot give any more of the plot away as it would spoil the essence of the story. Suffice it to say that it is a tearjerker and hopefully would make any person who is not living their life to the full think twice about what fate can have in hand for the unsuspecting.  We all know people who don’t live their lives even halfway to the full and to those it may have extra dimensions of meaning.  Go and see it and see for yourself.  Enjoy.