Critic Reviews

The film will feel familiar to anyone who’s sniffled through "Love Story" or "The Fault in Our Stars." It’s better than both.

The movie manages to shift sensitively from laugh-out-loud moments to tear-jerking scenes, discussing euthanasia on the way. It’s not perfect, but the novel’s five million readers have nothing to worry about: it’s totally loyal to the book (unsurprisingly since Moyes wrote the script).

Me Before You is a sugar-coated romantic bauble, not a gritty documentary. Giving into its pleasures is not for everyone, but its message — live boldly, as the movie’s hashtag encourages — is an admonition that’s awfully hard to argue.

A first film by theater director Thea Sharrock, it goes down smooth as sherry.

Clarke and Claflin both turn in acutely human performances, rounding out their characters and sharing palpable chemistry. At the risk of sounding very British, it’s all lovely.

Clarke and Claflin both turn in acutely human performances, rounding out their characters and sharing palpable chemistry. At the risk of sounding very British, it’s all lovely.

What’s somewhat unique about Jojo Moyes’s weepie, which the writer scripted from her 2012 bestseller, are the provocative dilemmas it explores to coax those tears.

I am by nature a cynic and am easily turned off by manufactured sentiment. I dislike "Terms of Endearment" intensely. That I was fully immersed in this world and invested in the characters’ lives is a testament to the movie’s strength.

The film belongs to Clarke. Her warm and winning star turn lifts this checklist chick flick.

Cheerful and efficient, this is the stripey tights of melodramas.