Don’t miss the gripping, well-written novel behind ‘Me Before You’

Some people just like to cry at the movies.

“I watched it the first season, and then I kind of fell out of it, and then I tried to watch it this season and I don’t know what’s going on”, he told her. You see, Will was once a virile captain of industry, so he hasn’t taken this bad fortune well at all.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that it’s the basis for the first big romantic movie of the summer; “Me Before You” is no simple, weepy beach read. Love stories are Moyes’ milieu, but this one comes with a bite. Lou (Emilia Clarke) is decked out in her black-and-white furry striped coat, dresses patterned with butterflies and vegetables, and a wild collection of brightly colored tights and shoes that resemble the bouquet of multicolored daisies she holds in one scene. When Lou loses her job at a bakery that’s closing, she applies for a well-paying post as a companion to wealthy, handsome and bitter quadriplegic Will Traynor (Sam Claflin, the charismatic Finnick Odair of “The Hunger Games”). Good to know she has another pitch in her arsenal. Two stars out of four. Since then, we’ve had some positive films about quadriplegics (most prominently “Murderball” and “The Sessions”), but here comes “Me Before You”. Gradually, though, they do what people tend to do when they’re thrown together for long periods of time: they soften toward each other.

But Lou also discovers a truth that horrifies her: Will has been exploring the possibility of assisted suicide for months. Devastated, Lou resolves to show him that life is worth living.

During another interview, Clarke went solo in a speedy press junket as part of promo for her upcoming film.

And she jumped at the chance to help him land a role after he was asked if he would be interested in joining the Game of Thrones cast.

I don’t mind it when filmmakers try to yank my emotions all over a theater. The Me Before You actress agreed and reached out to GoT creators David Benioff and D.B.

Emilia Clarke’s ideal man has “a dad bod”.

That story is already known, of course, to fans of the novel by Jojo Moyes, who adapted her book here.

A Warner Bros. release. 110 minutes. Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and some suggestive material.