I saw Me Before You back in 1991. It was called Dying Young, and Julia Roberts was the star. It stunk. I am entirely joking, but I promised myself I would use this as the first line of this review, regardless. The truth is I didn’t see Dying Young until 2005. That part is true, but the real truth is that these movies aren’t even in the same league. Dying Young wasn’t as poor as I thought, but I don’t remember much about it. On the other hand, Me Before You was an incredibly profound movie I will remember for years. It is also a movie that showcased Emilia Clarke’s range (HBO’s Game of Thrones) and firmly planted her as a leading actress for the next 10-15 years. The film also introduced Sam Claflin to the rest of the world, who had not seen The Hunger Games franchise, where he played the role of Finnick. Before I get into the nuts and bolts of this review, I want to state that every aspect of this tear-jerker blew me away. While it was designed to tug at our heartstrings, it felt completely authentic. It was carried by a superb performance by Clarke and backed up heavily by Claflin, who did just enough to play second fiddle. I remember seeing Brooklyn last year. Brooklyn was a movie that I adored, but I couldn’t understand it when I could hear the sniffling and see the watery eyes of all those sitting near me. In Me Before You, I understood it completely. There are a few quick and funny tidbits related to this movie that I thought I’d share:

1. I thought this was another movie based on a Nicholas Sparks book.
2. I kept getting this movie confused with Love & Friendship, the Jane Austin novel adapted for the big screen that came out around the same time as Me Before You. But, as I look at these two movies now, the only comparison was that I was convinced I wouldn’t see either film at the time of their release.
3. I talked to a coworker about Me Before You, and she spoiled the movie. She told me she didn’t want to ruin it for me, but she proceeded to do just that.

She told me how the movie ended, and I didn’t stop her from doing so. It turns out she never actually saw this movie, but her cousin told her everything she then repeated to me. I look back on that conversation, and I can’t be upset that she ruined it for me because if she hadn’t broached the topic with me in the first place, I might not have seen it and almost certainly would not have seen it on the big screen. I am so glad that I saw it in the theater. It was easily the most moving movie of the first half of 2016 and one in what is now looking like a poor year that likely will hold its spot on my Top 10 Movies of 2016 list.

Those who haven’t been privy to Clarke’s Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones, perhaps the most-watched premium cable show of all time, will likely see her for the first time. Sure, she had a role in Terminator Genisys. Still, that movie was so terrible it would be understandable if you had forgotten about it entirely or if you were lucky, could have avoided seeing it all. If, like many, you have watched Game of Thrones in its entirety, you know that this now 29-year-old has been carrying the franchise with Kit Harrington for the last six years. The stories revolving around Daenerys and Jon and Peter Dinklage’s Tyrion, too, are why we turn in each Sunday night from mid-March until the end of June. There is some fear that many Game of Thrones characters would be typecast forever. It would be hard to see them in other roles (see the entire cast of Friends, who have all had success after the run of that franchise but who all struggled to escape the mold of the character they played). For those worried about this happening to Emilia Clarke, rest assured that this will not be the case. Her portrayal of Louisa is so far removed from her portrayal of The Mother of Dragons that Game of Thrones will be the furthest thing from your mind after fifteen minutes. Trust me on this one because I wouldn’t have believed it if someone had told me that either).

So, what exactly is Me Before You? It’s undoubtedly not Dying Young, but despite the muffled cries coming from the audience throughout most of the second half. It falls somewhere in between. A sexy, confident, and successful banker named Will Traynor (Claflin) had it all. He was young. He was rich. He had a beautiful girlfriend named Alicia (Vanessa Kirby – Everest, About Time). Though we only glimpse him in his present state for about five minutes, it’s enough to see that he was a man who lived life to the fullest. All of that changes in a fraction of a second when he walks across the street and is struck by an oncoming motorcyclist. He essentially develops quadriplegia (he does enough function with one of his hands to maneuver his wheelchair). It’s roughly two years after that we meet Will again. He’s living in their London castle with his wealthy parents, Steven (Charles Dance – HBO’s Game of Thrones, The Imitation Game) and Camila (Janet McTeer – Albert Nobbs, The Woman in Black). The family has renovated a portion of the castle to serve as Will’s private residence where nurse Nathan services him(Stephen Peacocke – television’s Home and Away, television’s Wanted) who comes and goes a couple of times a day and is the one administering his medication and giving him as baths as well as a slew of Monday-Friday caregivers who he has chased from their jobs with his negative attitude and intolerability to be around.

Louisa is the awkward but cute girl next door who you can’t get enough of. Her family is poor, and Lou sacrifices so that her older sister Katrina (Jenna-Louise Coleman – Captain America: The First Avenger) can attend school. Lou is a gentle and kind barista (the kind who will make your day each time you visit) who is laid off from her job because the coffee shop isn’t earning enough revenue (and also because we need a movie to tell here). We get just enough of a glimpse into her friendly demeanor. Lou, low on skill, struggles to find a new job in the challenging economy and knows she needs to not be so much of a chooser because of her family’s dependence on her income. When she learns of the job at the Traynor castle, she jumps at the chance to interview despite not really being qualified. Camila is won over by her innocence and positivity (and, perhaps, her attractiveness) and offers her the sixth-month job.

I imagine that Me Before You is an excellent book. It is a fantastic movie, and sometimes that can be hard in a movie where you need to believe in the growth and development of its characters. It can be challenging to do that in such a short period. First, we have to believe that Will is truly depressed. Then we have to believe it when Lou goes through the gamut of emotions trying to do what she can to try and get him to think that life is worth living even though he’s bound to a wheelchair and also prone to hospitalizations because of his health, events that have, at times in the past, come close to killing him.

I won’t say anything more about the plot here. I strongly encourage seeing this movie. And I hope that after you do that, you will read what I wrote below my movie rating. It is a tear-jerker and is more than some might be able to handle or are even willing to try to handle. Situations like this (whether it be a debilitating life-changing incident such as this or something else) sometimes hit a little too close to home, and I understand that. With that said, this is the best love story so far this year. Claflin and, especially, Clarke are cementing themselves as leading actors for the next decade.

Plot 7.5/10 (honestly, we’ve seen this before…fortunately, the take on this one led us down avenues not yet explored)
Character Development 9.5/10 (Louisa and Will are both very different people by the end of this movie than they were two hours before)
Character Chemistry 10/10 (Clarke and Claflin are dynamic in this year’s best love story to date, while Patrick is played perfectly by Lewis)
Acting 10/10 (what cannot be understated is that this movie had the potential to be a disaster without the right performance from the two leads)
Screenplay 8.5/10 (I think the biggest problem here wasn’t that they didn’t tell enough of the story at the beginning…that was fine…but how it rushed to the end)
Directing 8.5/10 (rookie Thea Sharrock benefited from outstanding lead performances, beautifully shot cinematography and a soundtrack that would have had half of the audience weeping had there not even been a story to tell at all)
Cinematography 10/10 (Shot throughout England, we get some stunning shots of sweeping landscapes, including castles. More importantly, though, are the intimate moments between Louisa and Will that are captured in such a way that you can’t help but wish that the love story of your life wasn’t more like theirs)
Sound 10/10 (The soundtrack of the year includes songs from Ed Sheeran, Imagine Dragons, X Ambassadors, The 1975, Cloves, and Jack Garratt, to name a few)
Hook and Reel 9.5/10 (whether it’s the confident, successful, handsome Will that we meet in the film’s first scene or the friendly and upbeat barista Louisa that we meet right after that, there are two characters that I certainly wanted to learn more about…and their story that was one that you were fearful might make you sad, but one that you were willing to take a risk on)
Universal Relevance 9/10 (some of us have only dreamed of a love like this)
92.5%

***Spoilers for after watching this movie***

Sharrock received some criticism for not changing the ending of this movie. Author Jojo Moyes received some of the same criticism when the book was published, but not nearly to Sharrock’s level for the movie. This shows that a mainstream film such as this, which will make $70 million domestically at the box office, has a much broader reach than a big one. The film ends with Will going through with his plan of going to Switzerland to die by assisted suicide even though he has fallen in love with Louisa. This is why the aggregate score of the critics was not higher than its current and respectable 59%. This wasn’t an easy or popular ending, mainly because he was smiling a lot more than he had before in the six months of getting to know Clark. He had fallen in love with the woman. But that did not make his life any easier. For many of us, it would have been easier to go on. But Will’s life was vastly different, and he couldn’t accept his circumstances. He gave the six-month offer to his mother and father that he promised but continued to go on with his decision to end his life.

I want to bring up a couple of points here. The first has to do with the relationship itself. I loved its development. It felt natural and believable. Sure, it had to be sped up slightly to fight the confines of the movie, but Sharrock handled that nicely. Claflin was masterful in portraying a down-and-out paraplegic who was hellbent on going through with his initial plan after his six-month promise to his parents. He was such a miserable person to be around that it is no wonder that he chased a handful of caregivers away in such a short period. While he initially wasn’t planning on giving Louisa her fair chance, her awkward charm and desire to change his outlook on life win him over in such a way that he wasn’t expecting. But he is still depressed and intent on ending his life. And it’s understandable. He was a highly successful businessman passionately in love with Alicia, living the prime years of his life when everything changed in a fraction of a second. Unwilling to accept the circumstances before him, he drove Alicia away and landed himself in a deep depression where the only way out for him seemed to be death. His parents convinced him to give it six more months, which Will agreed to do, but this was only to satisfy his parents. He wasn’t changing his mind.