There are a few movies that I have been dancing around on the various streaming services I frequent.  They are films that I feel I should watch, but for whatever reason do not strike my fancy on a given day.  When this happens, I tend to look around a little more.  This is how I found Me Before You (2016).  The title itself piqued my Catholic interest to a degree. A more Christian way of putting it would be “you before me.”  In a sense, I feel like this is the actual tone of the plot.  Yet, this is all semantics.  The clincher was the fact that it is set in England, which will always get my attention.  I hope this review will get your attention for what is a good but controversial picture.

The only attention William “Will” Traynor (Sam Claflin) wishes to give in the first scene of Me Before You is to his girlfriend, Alicia Dawares (Vanessa Kirby).  They share a swanky London apartment, and he is off to his posh job when he is struck by a motorcycle and becomes a quadriplegic.  The accident forces him to move home to his rural home with his parents, Camilla (Janet McTeer) and Steven Traynor (Charles Dance), who are equally wealthy.  In that town lives Louisa “Lou” Clark (Emilia Clarke).  She comes from a considerably humbler background, working any job she can in order to help her family.  When we meet her, though, it is as she is losing her position at a café.  Upon getting home, her parents, Bernard (Brendan Coyle) and Josie Clark (Samantha Spiro), are concerned, but she promises to find employment as soon as possible.  She takes her positive attitude into the job’s office, but she is desperate to take any work she can get.  The position she finds is as a companion to Will.  When she goes to meet with Camilla, Will’s mother notes Lou’s chatty disposition, which comes off as nervousness in the interview.  Nonetheless, Camilla hires Lou and she starts the same day.  Lou’s first task is to go over Will’s list of medications with his nurse, Nathan (Steve Peacocke).  At the same time, Nathan makes it clear that her duties do not include any of the physical aspects of caretaking.  The schedule is daunting, but it is nothing compared to Will’s bitterness.  Since losing the use of his limbs, he has taken a dim view of life, and the only way he copes is through constant sarcasm.  The rudeness keeps Lou at a little more than arm’s length for most of the first few weeks, though she continues to ask if he needs anything.  His attitude worsens when he is visited by Alicia and her fiancé, Rupert Collins (Ben Lloyd-Hughes), who used to be Will’s best friend.  Alicia and Rupert try to explain away their relationship, but Will is hurt simply by their presence.  Will takes it out on his picture frames, breaking several by running into the shelf on which they are placed with his wheelchair.  The next day, though, he is annoyed but touched that she is trying to repair them.  It results in their first walk outside, and him not being as much of a jerk.  Yet, as she is going through the house, she overhears Camilla and Steven talking about a disturbing subject.  Apparently, Will had decided that after six months, if his condition did not improve, they would travel to Switzerland where he would undergo assisted suicide.  Initially, Lou is shocked by this prospect and thinks she is going to need to quit despite the money.  With some encouragement from her sister, Katreena “Treena” Clark (Jenna Coleman), a different plan is hatched.  Instead of staying at home all day, Lou proposes that she take Will on a sort of bucket list set of adventures.  His parents agree to fund it, hoping that it will rejuvenate their son.  It appears to work, even if the horse race was not the best start.  As an indication of his slight change, he accepts an invitation to her birthday party at her parent’s house.  At the celebration he meets her overly enthusiastic fitness trainer boyfriend, Patrick (Matthew Lewis), who makes the faux pas of suggesting exercises Will can do.  It is clear to Will that Patrick is not right for Lou.  It is also a sign that Will is developing feelings for Lou, which is underscored when he asks her to come to Alicia and Rupert’s wedding.  Yet, one day a lawyer comes to Will’s place who assists in making final wills.  Camilla and Lou are concerned that their hopes for Will are coming to naught, but Lou and Will have a marvelous time at the wedding.  While taking a literal spin on the dance floor, she convinces him to go somewhere in the world, and he agrees.  However, the night out takes a toll on him and the next day he develops pneumonia.  She spends a lot of time with him at his hospital bed, but she does not allow herself to lose hope.  It is at this point that Patrick begins to think that Lou cares more for Will, especially when Patrick sees the seemingly romantic trip she had in the works for Will.  In fairness to Patrick, I cannot blame him as they depart, with Nathan, for a tropical getaway, punctuated by Lou and Will sharing a bed.  It is while they are alone at night on the beach that they admit their feelings for each other.  However, Will remains adamant that he is going to end his life even though she begs him to choose otherwise.  Initially, she is going to quit and not see him again when they return, but she goes to Switzerland nonetheless.  She is with him as he passes away.  Once he is gone, he leaves her a sum of money and instructions.  As she is visiting Paris at his request, a voiceover from him tells her to live life well.

There is a bit of irony, not to mention controversy, with Will telling Lou to live well at the end of Me Before You.  I hope the reasons for the irony are obvious, but there was a real backlash when the film premiered.  Some felt as if it suggested that people with such conditions are a burden.  I am not sure I agree, though I can see how the film might lead one to believe this falsehood.  Still, I have to confess to being completely charmed by Lou.  She represents the kind of joy that Christ calls us into when following Him.  It is not that she is happy all the time, but she is able to make the best of almost any situation.  That is the true calling of a Christian.  This includes Will deciding that he is going to commit suicide.  Still, that topic needs to be discussed further.  There is a lot of time spent on justifying somebody who supposedly has a diminished quality of life to terminate their existence.  If I may be so bold, Will’s real problem is that he dwells on the person he was and compares that to the person he has become.  It is not a fair comparison.  However, do not take my word for it.  God loves us no matter if we have lost every last one of our motor functions.  You can argue that in such a situation, we are no better than the proverbial vegetable.  God loves vegetables, too.  It is Josie that says it best when she learns of Will’s decision, commenting that there are some choices that we do not get to make.  Having said all this, while I am diametrically opposed to Will’s decision, I have to credit Lou for remaining by him.  There is grace in being with a person while they suffer.  While it would have been preferable, if death there must be, to have seen it come by natural causes, her loyalty is Christ-like.  I also applaud doing everything she could to convince him to change his mind.  If there were more people like her in this world, it would be Heaven on Earth.

At the same time, I am not sure there is a world in which I would recommend Me Before You.  Lou is correct when she tells Will’s that his decision to end his life is a selfish one.  My worry is that people will see this film and think that such a choice is okay.  It is not, and remember that God loves you no matter your condition.