Warning: This post contains spoilers for Me Before You movie
(based on the book by Jojo Moyes) and quite a bit of a rant regarding the way
disabled characters are used as plot devices.
Normally, I’m not interested in pure romance or sick
stories, but this movie caused enough controversy online to make me curious …
so I watched it, fully prepared to hate it. Well, I didn’t, but at the end of
the movie, it just left me sad and it wasn’t particularly because one of the
main characters had died.
But let’s start from the beginning. First, there’s Louisa, a
quirky, awkward, bubbly, chatty, and not very bright young girl. Just look at
the idiot she’s been dating for seven years. In fact, my opinion of her was set
when she declared she was only interested in clothes. She has a peculiar
fashion style mostly meant to give the movie some color, and part of me kept
wondering how she could afford all those clothes when she had so much trouble
with finding and keeping a job. She’s also very chatty once she gets going, so I
totally agreed with Will when he asked her to shut up. I would have gone
further than that and put it in the contract before hiring her, but that’s just
me. The thing is, she’s not a bad person. She’s just simple, uneducated, and
without aspirations. And we’re supposed to root for her? Forgive me, but I’d
get bored after only five minutes of socializing with her. There’s nothing for
me to learn from her or intellectually stimulating conversation to be had, and
since I’m straight, her pretty doll face and nice figure wouldn’t keep me entertained
for long. She has, however, one redeeming quality: she is kind and has a big
heart. Unfortunately, even that gets ruined when she fails to save Will.
Will who? I don’t know, I still wonder who he is. He used to
work in banking so we’ll assume a certain degree of intelligence, he’s decent
looking, and his family is awfully rich. They own a castle for God’s sake! Quite
the fairytale setting, except Prince Charming doesn’t come on a white horse. He
comes in a wheelchair because he’s suffered a spinal-cord injury two years back
and he’s a quadriplegic now. He’s also quite an ass. Here comes Louisa to the
rescue to tame the beast. Well, not quite. He mops the floor with her
repeatedly, and she has no say on the matter because she really needs this job.
This could have turned into a cute romantic comedy, but the writer wanted more …
I’m not sure what. As it turns out, Will has his mind set on assisted suicide
and only agreed to postpone it six months as a favor to his parents.
From this point forward, the whole movie is a trainwreck. Louisa’s
attempts to show him life is still worth living are useless, and he never
changes his mind. No, even love can’t save this flick. So what do we learn from
it? It’s perfectly okay for severely disabled people to attempt assisted
suicide because life in a wheelchair sucks so much it’s not worth living. Will tells
us that (what we see is a whole different story, but we’re supposed to be dumb
and believe him anyway). And if a handsome, smart, rich guy like Will chooses
it, what are disable people living on welfare, who might not even have a professional
health care assistant or an electrical wheelchair, supposed to do? What is
there left for them to hope for? From this perspective, Mrs. Moyes let down an
entire community, and they’re quite vocal about it. So bravo to them!
My issue with Mrs. Moyes, who also wrote the screenplay, is
more craft related. It really bothers me when in the name of diversity, some
minority (whether is a person of color, LBGT, or a disabled character) appears in
the story only to be used as a plot device. Because that’s what Will is. He’s
not a fully-fledged character, we know close to nothing about him, he’s just
the placeholder for the idea of a disabled character with a few shiny trinkets
and nothing more. He’s so unimportant he wasn’t even given a character arch. Will
never changes other than becoming a little more polite. He starts with one set
of ideas and ends the same way because his writer never cared enough to make him ...
more.
No one notices how he stares out the window all day long
instead of doing something when he could do basically anything, given his
wealth, even living in a tropical paradise with Louisa for the rest of his
life. No one comments on his mental health. No one brings him a specialist to
help him overcome the severe depression he’s obviously suffering. No, they
accept it because if Will wants something, it’s his right to have it. And we
should accept it along with them and be contented a disabled character was
strong enough to get what he wanted, regardless of what that was, and move on.
Because this isn’t Will’s story. He was never good enough
for Louisa, his only purpose was to leave her the fortune she so badly needed
and make the audience cry. No, this is Louisa’s story. And she does have a
character arch. She evolves from living in a crowded attic to buying expensive
perfume in Paris. Because that’s everything all girls should ever want. How cool
is that?
P.S. Wouldn’t it have been nice to see Will ride off into the
sunset with Khaleesi astride his wheelchair? But for this to happen, someone
needs to be brave and care for the characters more than for shiny things. Too bad
it wasn’t the case.
