Romantic flick Me Before You struggles when dealing with the big issues

REVIEW: The ongoing disconnect between a bleak premise and a sunny storytelling disposition will undoubtedly irk some viewers but Me Before You finds its stride.

Me Before You (PG)

Director: Thea Sharrock (feature debut)

Starring: Emilia Clarke, Sam Claflin, Janet McTeer, Charles Dance, Jenna Coleman.

Rating: **1/2

Should they stay, or will he go?

Boy gets hit by motorbike, and is left permanently paralysed.

Girl gets sacked from her job at the local cafe, and is left temporarily penniless.

Girl gets hired as a daily carer for boy. Boy gets huffy on a daily basis with girl.

They fall in love.

End of movie? Err, not quite.

The romantic tear-jerker proved the might of the female audience, who drove the film to open higher than expected with $18.3 million. Picture: Alex Bailey/Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP

The wheelchair-bound Will (Sam Claflin) has a literal death wish. He would rather end his life now than see out his days as a shadow of his former, able-bodied self.

There seems to be little that loveable, lower-class Lou (Emilia Clarke) can do about persuading her sad-sack, snobby soulmate to stick around a while.

This is incongruously hard stuff for a lightweight romantic weepie to be messing about with, and the ongoing disconnect between a bleak premise and a sunny storytelling disposition will undoubtedly irk some viewers.

Therefore the intense criticism that Me Before You has drawn from disabled groups around the world is distinctly well-founded.

The film sends out a garbled message that only insensitively diminishes the value of a disabled life. Picture: Warner Bros. Entertainment.

The film’s lack of ardour in sufficiently addressing or exploring the nature of Will’s immovable despair sends out a garbled message that only insensitively diminishes the value of a disabled life.

Screenwriter Jojo Moyes (who also penned the 2012 source novel) could have done more to avert conveying the notion that a reduction in physical capabilities justifies a reduction in lifespan.

Clarke and Claflin are an appealing enough screen couple when the film finds its right stride as a cuddly cousin to The Fault In Our Stars.

So much so that you almost forget the awkward reasoning that may soon drive them apart. Almost.