The problem, as O’Connell writes in his essay, is that:
“’Me Before You’ reminded me that so often, when able-bodied people do acknowledge the disabled, it’s tinged with pity for their condition — and that’s just as problematic.”
O’Connell later adds: “Since people don’t really know how to treat [people with disabilities] like human beings, they put on their kid gloves, make a lot of sympathetic sad faces and call it a day. ‘Me Before You’ is the movie version of exactly that.”
Dominick Evans, a filmmaker and well-known disability activist on Twitter, has been actively protesting “Me Before You” since he watched the trailer in February.
“Watching the trailer made me really upset, because I was able to quickly figure out that he was going to kill himself,” Evans told Film Obsession. “The way he spoke about disability was really ableist. The way Sam ‘acts’ disabled relies on physical stereotyping of disability.”
Ultimately, Evans fails to see what’s romantic about the movie in the first place.
“Louisa and Will are only in each other’s lives for six months, and much of that time Will is sullen, withdrawn and sometimes verbally abusive to Louisa,” he told Film Obsession. “She is always cheerful as she attempts to take on the role of non-disabled savior in his life. However, they only have a few moments of true romance. The first time she actually kisses him, he tells her to stop, because love is not enough. Death is better. There is absolutely nothing romantic about that.”