When Will Traynor (Sam Claflin) is injured in a motorcycle accident and left a quadriplegic, he retreats from his life as an extreme sports-loving financier to live with his castle-owning parents in their mansion. Meanwhile, the extremely quirky Louisa “Lou” Clark (Emilia Clarke) has just lost her job at the local café and is desperate for work to help support her family.
Hired by Will’s parents as a kind of professional friend, her relentless cheeriness soon works wonders – but will it be enough to give him a reason to go on? You can probably guess the answer there from the protests against this film from disability activists, but really their time would be better spent protesting the lack of spark or originality in this by-the-numbers romantic weepie.
He’s a hunky romance novel dream (aside from the injury), while she’s so amazingly quirky her biggest dream in life is striped bumblebee tights. And while both Calflin and Clarke work extremely hard to pump some energy into proceedings, the near-total lack of romantic spark between them makes Will’s commitment to pulling the pin perhaps more understandable than it should be. If this kind of muted, bland love is the best the world has to offer he’s better off out of it.
Reviewed by Anthony Morris
