Kill your darlings: ‘Me Before You’ parses a problematic fave

It is a truth universally acknowledged that unequal class relations and terminal illness make for good love stories on page and on the silver screen. We’ve seen it done before: from "Pride and Prejudice" to "Pretty Woman", "Love Story" to "The Fault in our Stars".

So it should come as no surprise that the film adaptation of the bestselling novel "Me Before You" is marketed as a happy medium of these two tropes. Big reveal in a stunning red dress, check. Bucket list vacation for the critically ill, check. Appropriately weepy soundtrack, check.

Manic pixie shop girl Lou (Emilia Clarke, effervescent outside Daenerys Targaryen garb) is hired as a caregiver to the surly, rich Will (Sam Claflin, post-Hunger Games)—once a successful businessman and thrillseeker before a freak motorcycle accident rendered him quadriplegic. In the six months they spend together, he teaches her to step outside the comforts of her provincial existence and she teaches him to find joy in the mundane. 

Props to author Jojo Moyes for letting go of her darlings—in this case, plot points that would have give added dimension to the characters—for the sake of streamlining the story to a Hollywood-sized length, but it is rather a disservice to let the trailer gloss over the issue at the heart of the novel, and instead offer the coy tagline: Live boldly.

To live boldly, it seems, requires resources that not everyone has: staggering wealth in Will’s case and for Louisa, a pretty face and bubbly personality that enables her entry into Will’s world. There is a scene in the film that clearly outlines the gaping social chasm that divides Lou and Will, which reminds audiences that—although their paths may have crossed, the baggage of their respective upbringings weight down their every step.

While “dancing” at a wedding reception, Will tells Lou, who is comfortably perched on his lap, that she would never have let her breasts near him had he not been in a wheelchair. Lou retorts that he would not have even looked at her if he were mobile; she would not be a guest at a society wedding, but one of the servers at the reception. “In my defense,” Will admits, “I was an ass.” This self-awareness saves the story from devolving into a cliché, and gives meaning to what could have been just a shallow montage of meet-cute moments and witty repartee interspersed with the occasional heartfelt confession.

A brief note on the supporting cast: Once viewers get over seeing Mr. Bates, Tywin Lannister, Clara Oswald, and Neville Longbottom outside their respective franchises, they will appreciate how well these actors parlayed their brief screen appearances to sketch the difference in Will’s and Lou’s circumstances. The very rich may be different from you and me, but their lives are not necessarily better; nor are close family ties a substitute for the satisfaction of being able to do what one wants.

The titular phrase takes on a double meaning then. Me before You refers, first and obviously, to how one’s life and worldview is changed by someone else. The second, more important lesson is coming to terms with difficult decisions and learning that it is okay to choose yourself above others. —KG, GMA News

Me Before You opens nationwide on June 15.