Review of Me Before You (2016) by Kenlyn J — 07 Jun 2016

The more and more I think about the movie my 13 year old daughter and I saw today the more and more angry I become. She and I went in thinking it was going to be a romantic comedy about love and hardship while he became accustomed to his new "body" and instead we came out wondering what the Hell just happened.

Maybe it's the fact that my family just buried my 5 year old son a year ago, but to me, life is precious. I don't look at life and it's value with the physical activities we are able to do. I look at the moments that we have, at the adventures we have (however small) My son couldn't walk or talk. But he still loved life! He still was engaged and enjoyed everything around him. I look at this man in the movie, who although he couldn't walk or run, was able to talk and laugh and enjoy life. He could have married her, had children with her and had a long and joyous life. He could have gone back to work. He didn't have to be limited with his physical limitations. And yet the author took it upon herself to make him into a shell simply because he couldn't walk. He was dissolved into a mass of pity that couldn't be anyone of importance, couldn't LIVE, simply because he wasn't able to walk down a street in Paris. Lord help him that he would have to roll down the street in a wheelchair or deal with prejudice from a taxi driver. Or that he presumed that she would feel trapped in that tiny town (even though both sets of parents lived there) if she was made to stay. He based his life on the most small and trivial things instead of being thankful that he was alive and able to have this time with her. That he had been given a second chance at life. Heck, look at Stephen Hawking. He communicates with a muscle in his cheek and still has the drive to live!

While a perfect ending would have been him marrying her and her then pregnant, it would have also shown that life doesn't have to be "perfect" to be perfect. And that we are all broken in one way or another and our only limits are ourselves.

What a perfect opportunity to make a tragedy into something beautiful and what a shame that didn't happen.