Emilia Clarke’s tear-jerker Killing It on Prime Video

Content warning: This article discusses topics and topics that some readers may find triggering, including physician-assisted suicide.

In the middle During her time as Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones, with Emilia Clarke She found the right time to make a sad, poignant romance… and years later, it found new life on Amazon Prime’s streaming service. So what is a movie?

Released in 2016, “Me Before You” — based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Jojo Moyes, which came out four years earlier — tells the story of Louisa “Lou” Clark (Clarke), a bubbly but unmotivated young woman. A woman ends up working as an in-home caregiver for Will Traynor (Sam Claflin), who lived a very active life as a banker and athlete before getting into a motorcycle accident. Will struggles mightily with his new life as a quadriplegic (which means he has a devastating spinal cord injury that affects his ability to move his arms and legs), and frankly, he has a really tough attitude about how his entire world has changed, but Lou’s irrepressible spirit and nature Boldness unexpectedly fascinates him, helping him live life more fully.

Unfortunately, before Lou enters Will’s life, he makes the decision to end his life at a clinic in Switzerland that allows physician-assisted suicide. As much as Lou tries to convince Will not to follow this path, he eventually does. Lou spends the last moments of Will’s life by his side, and after his death it is revealed that he left her a large sum of money to encourage her life. Ha Life to the fullest – which is what she read in a letter Will left with his last will and testament while sitting in his favorite café in Paris.

The film is definitely a tear-jerker, but people on Amazon Prime are clearly embracing it. So what did critics say about “Me Before You” when it was first released?

Before addressing the critical response to “Me Before You,” it is very It is important to note that the film caused a stir in the disabled community – and no In a good way. Understandably, many disability advocates feel as if the film’s message is that life with a disability is no life at all, which it is certainly Not true, and Critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes Reflecting this, it reads, “‘Me Before You’ benefits from the engaging chemistry of Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin, though it’s not enough to make up for its clumsy treatment of a sensitive subject.” With an average rating of 54%, officially a “rotten” rating, what did individual critics have to say about it?

Roxana Al-Hadidi, writing for Punch drunk critics At the time, she got straight to the heart of the matter: “Strong performances don’t balance out the problematic parts of Me Before You, of which there are many.” In their review of FoxAja Romano expressed similar sentiments, writing, “In other words, if you want your romance with a side of disability and chronic pain, Me Before You is perfect for you — as long as you don’t actually want that.” We want a realistic depiction of any of these things.” Meanwhile, V.I New York MagazineDavid Edelstein was harsh about both books and “Fans of Jojo Moyes’ best-selling novel will be thrilled to hear that she wrote the screenplay too, and that she saved all the lines that – when read aloud – will provide a lot of fun in your next movie,” the film quipped. Dinner Party.” Just for some balance, though, David Ehrlich’s IndieWire I absolutely loved it, saying that “Me Before You” is “such a wonderful, non-ironic film that it almost doesn’t matter that it’s not very good.”

The bottom line is that despite the fact that “Me Before You” was a massive flop, both Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin went on to bigger and better projects. Apparently, Clarke continued to play Daenerys Targaryen on HBO’s Game of Thrones until the show ended in 2019, although… Which It also generated a lot of controversy (Largely because the last episode was, uh, Not very good). After playing Daenerys, Clarke had another romance — 2019’s “Last Christmas” with Henry Golding and Emma Thompson — lent her voice to the 2022 film “The Amazing Maurice,” and appeared in a romantic comedy along with a sci-fi thriller. -fi development called “The Pod Generation” which was released in 2023. In the same year, she officially joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as G’iah in the Disney+ original series “Secret Invasion.”

As for Claflin, he gained fame and acclaim for his role as Fink O’Dair in the “Hunger Games” films before “Me Before You,” and after playing Will Traynor, he joined the cast of the Irish drama “Peaky Blinders.” You can also see Claflin in the 2020 Netflix original film “Enola Holmes” – where he plays Mycroft Holmes alongside Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill as Enola and Sherlock, respectively – and most recently, Claflin has received rave reviews for his lead role as the troubled. (And fictional) rock star Billy Don in “Daisy Jones & the Six.” If you’re interested in “Me Before You,” it’s available to stream on Amazon Prime now.

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