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I saw a thread that asked about the last movie we saw and thought this warranted a whole thread.
The last movie I saw was an adaptation of Jojo Moyes' book Me Before You.
From what I could gather from friends and what I had heard through word of mouth, most people didn't seem to be huge fans of the movie. I had a few friends that hated the book too.
I wouldn't consider myself a pessimist, but I LOVED the book. For a romance novel, it wasn't romanticized into this ridiculous fairytale that would never happen. It showed the nitty-gritty, nasty sides of what it is like to take care of someone with such a great illness. It showed the kind of mental and physical toll that takes on the person going through it, as well as everyone around them. I most admired that it wasn't a boy-meets-girl story and love cures all. Will Traynor stayed very true to his character and Jojo took us through this journey with them.
As someone who had read the book, I thought the movie might be hard to follow if you hadn't read the book. Cinema is just another form of art and I could sympathize with filmmakers because you can only put so much into a 1-2 hour film. However, I thought, for the most part, they stayed very true to the events of the book and my only complaint was that they could have shown how difficult it was for Louisa to go to Switzerland at the very end of the film.
I'd love to know all of your thoughts on the book/film, though
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I loved the movie and will admit that I cried at the ending. I know I must now read the book to really understand the author and get ready for the sequel.
So much tears, so much sadness. But she's an AMAZING actress and so expressive. I want to say it's a must see, because it is, but really, it's a cry fest. I loved it so much though
I prefer the movie to the book. I think it was wonderfully adapted and cut out some of the unnecessary parts of the book. Especially her family. I felt like Louisa was always the butt of the joke with her family, when she was the one keeping them afloat. And her bratty sister was a nuisance. In the movie, while they had a few jokes, it was more with love and her sister, while still a tad bratty, seemed more loving towards her.
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I definitely agree with the fact that it's hard to fit everything from a book into that small allotted time frame as it's nearly impossible. I personally loved both though, and all of my friends loved the movie too. The movie definitely could've turned out a lot worse.
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I try to read books before the movie adaptation comes out. I was able to read this book in less than a day because I was so in love with it. Jojo Moyes has such a lovely writing style which made the book feel all the more real. While reading the book I felt a whirlwind of emotions and when watching the movie the feelings were a little dulled. The movie stayed true to the book and I feel that's why the movie wasn't as great as the book. When you read the book before watching the movie you already know what's going to happen. Plus the movie can only go for so long whereas the book can be as detailed as need be. Overall, the book and movie were both great and I loved them both.
Incredibly sad and out of the ortdinary. Not your every day love story, just the touch of real world that we need and not always want to see. I admit that after watching the movie I decided to read the book and I'm just about to finish it. A great and moving story.
I agree that the movie took out some parts of the book that I found unnecessary or annoying. I also agree that, as always happens in movie adaptations, certain details that I loved in the book or I felt really aided in understanding characters or forwarding the plot were left out. Overall, both the movie and the book elicited the same emotional response from me - a whirlwind of laughs and tears and heart-wrenching moments. I think the actress who played Lou and the actor who played Will were phenomenal in nailing those characters. I do agree with smhawkins that Lou could have shown more of her distress at having to go to Switzerland, but overall I think it was a spectacularly done adaptation, and a great movie on its own as well.
The movie was terrible. Panders to its audience and doesn't take them seriously. The emotions and themes are all surface level. Acting was sub-par, so was the direction. 4/10
I read both "Me Before You" and the sequel "After You" before watching the movie. I think that the movie didn't quite do it justice as the movie seems to portray the characters very differently. There is really no mention of the struggle between Clark and her family when she decides to go to switzerland. The second book shows how the decision effects her family and herself afterwards. It is worth a read.
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I enjoyed the book - I wouldn't say I loved it though. The thing that I enjoyed most about the book was the character development and interaction. I feel like this is what the movie was really lacking!! Louisa didn't come off as quirky and lovable as I found her in the book and similarly, the portrayal of William seemed stale to me. Also, the plot which kept you turning the pages in the book fell flat and was predictable in the movie. Unfortunately, I think Me Before You just worked so much better as a book.
I have only seen the movie so far but the book has been added to my to read list. Watching the movie I fell in love with the characters and the story. Louisa was bubbly who tried to look on the bright side no matter what and William who tried to find the silver lining in his life and he did. Watching the film you couldn't help but want these two want these two to have the fairy tale ending full of love and happiness, but you could also see Wills point of view and could understand his choices at the end of the movie. I cant wait to read the book and really get into Louisa's head and really understand her connection to William and what exactly about him drew her to him so much.
I understand that there are a lot of people who read the book or watch the movie and are immediately captured by the romance and drama. I suppose in that sense, Me Before You is a good romance story. However, I am going to be honest, that does not make it a good story all on it's own.
I do not want to come off as rude or nasty, but I find this book/movie to be upsetting and inappropriate. Not because of the love story, but because of the way the author handles the very sensitive subject matter that the book is based on. Let's face it, the thing that launched this story into success was because it featured a disabled man as a main character. If not for that, this story would be as well known as any other romance/drama book about two passionate lovers. That being said, I think Jojo Moyes abuses the disabled character trope, in that she makes a person who has a disability suffer more than any normal character would simply to cause distress for other characters who are not even directly effected by the persons disability. In a sense, Jojo Moyes makes an able character more effected by the disabled character's disability than they are themselves.
There is a lot to say about the treatment of the disabled character in the story, such as portraying him as suicidal because of his disability, assuming people can live better lives without disabled people holding them back, and--as the title of the book suggests--puts able people before disabled people. In general, I find that Moyes simply deals with disabilities very poorly, seeing as she is an able person writing a disabled person and handling that matter insensitively. The fact of the matter, is that every disabled person is different in how they deal with their own disability, so there is no single way to represent a character with a disability. However, because there are so few proper representations of disabled people in the media, when a book like Me Before You (which was really popular) portrays a disabled person as suicidal who considers themselves a burden to others, that does damage to actual disabled people. Because the media is viewed by so many, when the rare representation of a disabled person portrays them as poorly as Moyes did with her own character, that sets up a certain image for all disabled people as sad burdening people who are better off dead, and that is a terrible thing to do to the disabled community who already struggle enough, both in the media and out.
Again, there is a lot to say about this story, specifically about the treatment of the subject matter. However, this is not a review, just my open opinion. As I said, I know most people are drawn to the romance side of things, which the story mostly does well with (there are still some issue there as well), but any good story is more than just it's genre. A good fantasy book should be more than just fantasy. A good horror story should be more than just horror. And of course, any good romance should be more than just romance. There needs to be depth and evolution to a proper story, and strong development and design to characters. I am not exactly saying Me Before You lacked these things (albeit, I have seen better), but when we see a disabled character who greatest development in a story go from being alive to killing himself, there is something wrong there.
I hope I am not alone in seeing how bad Moyes treated her only disabled character. It is important for storytellers of this generation to portray disabled people as empowered. Again, I understand that not all disabled people may feel empowered, as all people handle those things differently. But again, it is a matter of the lack of representation of disabled people in the media in a really good way. It is therefore important to portray them as more than suicidal, burdening, and/or sources of suffering.
I should also make it clear that I am NOT disabled, and the opinions I wrote are opinions that I share with the disabled community. I think that when an entire community of people (the disabled community) say that a character who is like them was written insensitively and inappropriately, it is necessary to heed those words of people who are constantly unheard.
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I really enjoyed the book and I read it in less than a day. I was on a bus to see my mother and I read it throughout the length of the trip. There were so many subplots that were well developed and I feel like every detail provided in the book really added to the story. The frustrating thing about the movie adaption is that they cut out some of the most important parts of the book that provided action. The movie was kind of just an upbeat movie that always shared thoughts of hope for Will, but if you read the book you understood how he was and the decision he would make. Don't get me wrong, the actors were amazing and portrayed the characters to the best of their abilities, but when I left the movie theatre, I felt empty and robbed of the story. I understand the logical reasoning behind cutting the stuff out, it was just disappointing.
