I have read Me Before You described as a romantic — yet uplifting — drama. The narrative and plot are unquestionably the carapace of an unconventional weepie. Yet script and acting both don’t merely falter and fail, but touch on that sheer absurdity that steers it from tragedy.This could be blamed on the writer. But the players seem at times shadowed by a script thrust upon them without foreknowledge of what exactly they are meant to do.An exuberant young woman (Clarke) is engaged to care for a quadriplegic ex-athlete (Claflin), now slumped over and carefully preparing for a supervised suicide in a Swiss clinic. The parents (Coleman and Dance) of the paralysed man know his plans and hope the young woman will revive his will to live despite his ghastly entrapment.In their own way they fall in love. There can be no physical love but they exchange forever-after endearments. How it all ends should remain secret from those who do in reality go anticipating woe. That’s about the sum of th...
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