Me Before ... What Now?!
Folding laundry might be my least favorite chore. Or is it washing dishes? I don’t know, it’s hard to commit to just one. Let’s just say I’m not a fan, of either. I would rather run a mile in high humidity at great speed, or pet a spider, than try to properly fold a fitted sheet, or scrub a bowl with dried pancake batter on the edges. And yet, it must be done. So I reluctantly fold laundry. And when there’s a ton of it—and there always is—sometimes I watch a movie to kill the boredom.
So there I sat last Sunday, surrounded by a weeks worth of my kids underwear, mounds of wrinkled t-shirts, and more pajamas and pants than I dared to count, watching a movie about a spoiled, albeit handsome disabled man, and a beautifully happy woman with little money, and even less ambition. It was presented as a three hankie love story, but to me it was more of a standard, unbelievable tale with an all to familiar plot that favors the man, and presents a woman who somehow needs saving. I’m sure the book was more nuanced, I sure hope it was. The movie left me sad, and not for the reasons I expected.
“Me Before You” is about an impossibly beautiful man, with an impossibly awesome life—complete with a gorgeous girlfriend, a swanky apartment, a high powered job, and two extremely rich parents who live across from their family castle, yep, a castle, because all love stories need a castle—who ends up paralyzed after a freak accident where he is hit by a motorcycle. Somehow it is supposed to be ironic that the adventure seeking playboy is hurt BY a motorcycle, not while riding one. He carelessly crossed a street while looking at his phone, didn’t bother looking for traffic, and found himself on the wrong end of a tragic tale.
It was sad. And tragic. But everything that followed was exactly what you’d expect, until the end. We watch Will be rude, then simmer in pain, then be ruder, then cringe in pain, then eventually find his smile when he falls in love with his quirky caretaker, Lou. She’s adorable, super happy and really kind, dresses in colorful clothes—and really needs the money because her father is out of work and somehow it’s up to her save the family. Typical lady role in a classic love story. She might as well have worn a shirt that said, “Save Me,” in bold letters front and center on her chest. Her ample, beautiful chest.
I play along, and for the most part enjoy their friendship. Of course Lou already has a boyfriend, who doesn’t appreciate her, so I find myself somehow rooting for love. I kind of want Lou and Will to get together. I was sitting there waiting for this sweet woman to fall in love with a suicidal man. Oh, did I forget to mention he is planning to kill himself? Because if you must know, he’s a man‘s man, and can’t imagine living life in the broken shell of the body he once used to his every advantage.
Over the course of their relationship he belittles her lack of hobbies or interests not related to work, questions her lack of education, and makes her watch a movie with subtitles—to broaden her horizons. Because we all know that the true sign of a quality human is a desire to read the films they watch. And just when I’m actually buying into it, thinking it a real relationship, one about to blossom before my eye—they attend his ex-girlfriends wedding, who of course is marrying his best friend. Of course they go to this wedding, of course.
It was during this scene that I got mad. As they work their way through what is clearly an awkward wedding, they laugh and smile, he gives her a whirl on his electric wheelchair, and they truly seem to be having fun—until he drops a truth bomb that made me want to punch his stupid beautiful face. He commented on her boobs, of course, and she giggled, of course. Then she says something like, if not for the accident her boobs basically would never have been in his universe let alone near his face, rather behind the bar serving drinks with the other INVISIBLES—while he chased after a leggy blond. They both laughed. But I cringed. They agreed that she was indeed an invisible. Unimportant enough to even catch the glance of his former self, but good enough to spend months trying to save his current self. Here’s the thing, she was never invisible. He was simply too good for her, at least he thought so.
I was admittedly rooting for a man without a fully functioning penis to somehow find a way to have sex with this beautiful woman. But I couldn’t imagine the story going the other way, and that sank me. Can you imagine a story that starts with a bitchy woman, barking at a put upon manslave, where the woman is disabled and he is expected to somehow fall for her? To be ok with her bitchiness long enough to actually fall in love with her, and be willing to move forward with a sexless love affair? It wouldn’t happen.
And back to the invisible comment. Here this beautiful woman, with simple needs, but a rich family life, was made to be small. And a man was made bigger than life, because of his adventures, and his access to bought happiness. Why are poor people in similar storylines made to fight for, and hang on to life—as if life is the real reward—but rich people are always pissed because they can no longer live the big life they once had? It makes no sense. We are to believe Lou fell deeply in love with a broken man, because he still had something to offer her—love. But that same love is not enough to talk him into living, for her. It’s a shitty story.
He died, with her by his side, in a final act of winning. He leaves her money to travel and live the life he dreamed for her, and a note that acts almost as guidebook for a new life. I’m not sure I understand his motives. Is she better off for knowing him, and loving him—or because he afforded her a great trip and a weirdly earned trust fund?
I wanted to love this movie. I didn’t. Maybe I’ll read the book, for it has to offer more of his story. A few reasons to actually root for him.
