02/06/2016

ME BEFORE YOU ★ | BOOK + MOVIE REVIEW







Hey Zengarmy,


*This movie review is going to be quite a chatty one,

so it's advisable for you to go and grab some snacks or
a cup of tea before indulging in the reading. Bahahah*



The time is currently 12:32 a.m. in the morning (2nd of June) as I'm writing this.
I'm probably going to finish this blog post tomorrow but I couldn't fall asleep now!
I have just finished watching the Me Before You movie premiere about an hour ago,
and all dem emotions have gotten the best of me. Darn it! I should've known better!
Who the heck on Earth watches sad love movie at night and still expect him/herself to
be able to have a good night sleep? MEEE!!! I'm wide awake right now & all I could blame
is my impatience. I literally could NOT wait for another day to finally watch this movie!!!





PS : I'm on Snapchat! Come add me! (@zengteck)





I've heard a lot of good things about Me Before You, even before the movie is out.
I mean, okay, well, OBVIOUSLY the novel is the bomb dot com! Many bloggers that
I'm following had been raving about the novel for months and months and months.
However, we all know that laziness is the devil of procrastination. Hence, I keep on
putting off the idea of getting myself a copy of Me Before You, until I saw the trailers.



Believe it or not, these movie trailers are
the reason why I decided to buy the novel.







Just in case you haven't read the novel and know nothing about the movie,
this is NOT a teen love story like those you've seen in The Fault In Our Stars.
This is a love story between a quadriplegic man (both arms & legs paralyzed)
who wanted to end his life by euthanasia & a small-town woman who gave up
on her future because of her own insecurity. I know, this one-sentence-synopsis
sounded VERY boring but TRUST ME, this story is a life changer! While reading
the novel, I constantly thought of the phrase "When life crosses, path changes".
To me, what touches me the most about this story is that when two person with
entirely different perceptions fall in love, they made each other a better person.






If you know me well, you'll know that I'm a very particular
person when it comes to these "from-novel-to-screen" movies.
I personally HATE IT when the small-but-significant-to-readers
scenes were being chopped off just to make way for other scenes!
(just like what happened in the The Fault In Our Stars movie, FYI.)
Hence, when the trailer of Me Before You came out three months ago,
I was honestly rather undecided about whether I should watch the movie
first then read the novel, or the other way round. And I ended up reading
the novel first because I knew I wasn't even going to be bothered to read
the novel anymore if I watched the movie first. Plus, I'm also extremely
curious about the plot and the reason behind the success of the novel.



Nevertheless, here's what I thought after (painstakingly) managing to
finish reading the novel JUST THE NIGHT before the movie premiere,
& (obviously) after watching the movie a day after finishing the novel :



The movie was almost as good as the novel,
in its best capability. Like, okay, obviously
the novel will ALWAYS be better because
of the details it provided. But this movie's
honestly a concise summary of the novel!
I'd give a solid 9.5/10 for the novel as well
as another solid 8/10 for the movie! Bravo!



Not only were most of the small-but-significant-to-readers scenes
being retained in the movie, the flow of the story was as smooth as
a sweet dream (what a weird adjective, I know). The whole movie is
digestible enough for the people who didn't read the novel & complete
enough for the people who read the novel to relive every single details.



Watching this movie was like sitting on an emotional roller coaster.
I laughed. I cried. I laugh-cried. I cry-laughed. And I found myself
having A TONNES OF AFTERTHOUGHTS after finished watching it.



If you ask me whether to watch the movie first or read the novel first,
my absolute answer would be : READ THE GODDAMNED NOVEL FIRSTTT!
I would highly recommend you to read the novel beforehand in order to
discover more oblivious details in the movie! In all honesty though, I'm so
grateful that I read the novel first because that makes me able to notice
the minute details hidden in a quick glance or small gestures of the actors.






I do think this movie might (or might not) be slightly boring or unimpressive
for those who haven't read the novel and didn't know the full detailed story.
Having said that, as a viewer whom already read the novel beforehand, I do
think this movie summarizes the novel in its best capability, without chopping
off too many of the small-but-significant-to-readers scenes. Even with several
minor adaptations of the plot in order to suit the movie industry's taste, the pace
of the movie is neither too slow for the non-readers nor too fast for the readers.



In my very own humble opinion, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie
& would totally suggest you to go watch it. I swear I'm not sponsored at all!






Emilia Clarke as Louisa Clark. (She is my spirit animal)






Sam Claflin as Will Traynor.






Speaking of the movie casts, the actors in this movie is flawless!!
Emilia Clarke (oh my holy shit) is definitely the highlight of the show.
Her role as the female lead, Louisa Clark, who is one of my favorite
character of all times is being played so effortlessly and naturally that
I was SO convinced that Emilia IS Louisa Clark by the end of the movie.
On the other hand, Sam Claflin also did a really fantastic job in portraying
his role as the male lead, Will Traynor, in the movie. Also, not to forget the
other minor characters including Will's father and mother, Stephen Traynor
(played by Charles Dance) and Camilla Traynor (played by Janet McTeer),
and Lou's father, mother, grandpa, sister, as well as boyfriend, Bernard
(played by Brendon Coyle), Josie (played by Samantha Spiro), Katrina
(played by Jenna Coleman), and Patrick (played by Matthew Lewis)
also did a good job in supporting the movie as a whole! I'm impressed!



PS : You might remember Patrick as Neville Longbottom
from the good old Harry Potter movie HIOHIOHIOHIOHIO!






Here are some of my FAVORITE quotes!



I will never, ever regret the things I've done.
Because most days, all you have are places in your memory that you can go to.





Hey Clark', he said.'Tell me something good'.
I stared out of the window at the bright-blue Swiss sky
and I told him a story of two people. Two people who shouldn't have met,
and who didn't like each other much when they did, but who found they
were the only two people in the world who could possibly have understood each other. 
And I told him of the adventures they had, the places they had gone, and the things I had
seen that I had never expected to. I conjured for him electric skies and iridescent seas 
and evenings full of laughter and silly jokes. I drew a world for him, a world far from a 
Swiss industrial estate, a world in which he was still somehow the person he had wanted 
to be. I drew the world he had created for me, full of wonder and possibility.





I turned in my seat. Will’s face was in shadow and I couldn’t quite make it out.
‘Just hold on. Just for a minute.’‘Are you all right?’ I found my gaze dropping towards his 
chair, afraid some part of him was pinched, or trapped, that I had got something wrong.
‘I’m fine. I just . . . ’ I could see his pale collar, his dark suit jacket a contrast against it.
‘I don’t want to go in just yet. I just want to sit and not have to think about . . . ’


He swallowed. Even in the half-dark it seemed effortful.


‘I just . . . want to be a man who has been to a concert with a girl in a red dress.
Just for a few minutes more.’ I released the door handle. ‘Sure.’


I closed my eyes and lay my head against the headrest,
and we sat there together for a while longer,
two people lost in remembered music,
half hidden in the shadow of a castle on a moonlit hill.





Push yourself. Don’t settle. Wear those stripy legs with pride.
And if you insist on settling down with some ridiculous bloke,
make sure some of this is squirreled away somewhere.
Knowing you still have possibilities is a luxury.
Knowing I might have given them to you has alleviated something for me.





I placed my face so close to his that his features became indistinct,
and I began to lose myself in them. I stroked his hair, his skin, his brow,
with my fingertips, tears sliding unchecked down my cheeks, my nose against his,
and all the time he watched me silently, studying me intently as if he were storing each 
molecule of me away. He was already retreating withdrawing to somewhere I couldn't 
reach him.I kissed him, trying to bring him back. I kissed him and let my lips rest against 
his so that our breath mingled and the tears from my eyes became salt on his skin, and I 
told myself that, somewhere, tiny particles of him would become tiny particles of me, 
ingested, swallowed, alive perpetual. I wanted to press every bit of me against him.
wanted to will something into him. I wanted to give him every bit of life I felt and force 
him to life. I held him, Will Traynor ex-City whiz kid, ex-stunt diver, sportsman, traveller, 
lover. I held him close and said nothing, all the while telling him silently that he was loved.


Oh, but he was loved.





“I'm not going to try and change your mind."


"If you're here, you accept it's my choice.
This is the first thing I've been in control of since the accident."


"I know."


And there it was. He knew it, and I knew it. There was nothing left for me to do.
Do you know how hard it is to say nothing ? When every atom of you strains to do the 
opposite? I just tried to be, tried to absorb the man I loved through osmosis,
tried to imprint what I had left of him on myself. I did not speak...





Time slowed, and stilled. It was just the two of us,
me murmuring in the empty, sunlit room. Will didn't say much.
He didn't answer back, or add a dry comment, or scoff.
He nodded occasionally, his head pressed against mine, and murmured,
or let out a small sound that could have been satisfaction at another good memory.


"It has been, the best six months of my entire life."


"Funnily enough, Clark, mine too."


And then, just like that, my heart broke. My face crumpled, my composure went and I 
held him tightly and I stopped caring that he could feel the shudder of my sobbing body 
because grief swamped me. It overwhelmed me and tore at my heart and my stomach and 
my head and it pulled me under, and I couldn't bear it.





I feel like I could literally add on a million more quotes here but I thought
you guys will probably be bored to death by then hahahahahahah! Anyways,
reading these quotes gives me heartache now so I thought it would be a great
timing to end this blog post. If you've successfully read until this part, leave me
a comment below (you can comment WHATEVER you like) so that I can see you!



All in all, Me Before You is a great story which brings attention to controversial
issues like euthanasia with a tinge of lighthearted romance and a lot of tearful
afterthoughts. GO. WATCH. IT. AND DON'T FORGET TO BRING YOUR TISSUES.









        
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