One of the greatest disappointments in life is when the trailer is better than the movie itself. Unfortunately, "Me Before You" falls into this category. The film is an adaptation of the popular novel written by Jojo Moyes. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Moyes wrote the screenplay herself. Unfortunately, the script was the weakest portion of the film. It lacked an exposition and urgency in the climax. The theme of the movie, that everyone deserves to be a little bit selfish and do things for themselves, is one that I regrettably cannot get behind. Needless to say, this darling little chick flick did not make me cry, and in this writer's opinion is purely a step above a Nicholas Sparks' film with a "Fault in our Stars" twist. However, I would like to commend Mrs. Moyes on her witty banter, and of course thank her for not forcing an excessive amount of sexuality. The film successfully gets you to like the characters, but it's not quite enough for you to pull out your tissues.

We start off in the city, seeing the luxurious past of our story's dream boat: Will Traynor (who really is a dirt bag). But of course, this billionaire's life is too good to be true. There is a fantastic pinch of foreshadowing as Traynor's girlfriend advises him not to ride his motorcycle. Moments later, he is hit resulting in a spinal cord injury. Moyes then plops us into the world of our leading lady, Lou Clark, as she has just been fired from her job. In all fairness to Moyes, I did not read the book before seeing the movie so to a certain degree, I suppose there is an expectation that perhaps your knowledge of the novel should guide you through the film. With that in mind, I did not appreciate Moyes throwing me into Clark's world with very little explanation. Although the opening scene is decent, giving you some background, the exposition that follows is vague. Moyes does not bother to stagger the introduction of characters, or explain their purpose. I found myself in the first 20 minutes of the film trying to determine which character was which. Suddenly Lou was texting someone named Trina, who I could not determine was the sister. And who was this Patrick the girls kept discussing, whom I thought for a while was a friend or the husband of the sister? Then I was terribly shocked to discover that the sister had some sort of teenage pregnancy epidemic, which seemed to come out of the blue and was never fully explained. The script lacks an exposition, and although the audience can catch up and figure things out, it would be nice if Moyes would lay out a clear story line for us to follow. An exposition should be the breadcrumbs the writer leaves for us, allowing us to get to the climax. But Moyes' characters and their purposes were not so clear.

Moving past the negatives, this movie of course did have some commendable qualities. For example, let's discuss Thea Sharrock's directional abilities. Her color schemes were gorgeous. Her sets reminded me of that of a Wes Anderson film. Her attention to detail was impeccable, which certainly elevated the film. I particularly loved the attention to Lou's possessions, especially her electronics. During the movie, she has an older cellphone and laptop, which contrasts with Will's brand new MacBook and other fine electronics. This perfectly suits Clark's lower status. And what better way to complement Sharrock's accuracy than Jill Taylor's absolutely stunning costume designs. Her pieces perfectly exemplified Lou Clark's personality. And despite being slightly odd combinations, they were quirky styles that every girl desperately wants to wear. Both these women made up for the lack of perfection in the story line.

And then our dreamboat actors also were cast quite well. Perhaps Claflin's flaring nostrils and Emilia Clarke's excessively moving eyebrows, they did a fantastic job. The two are very well cast. However, Emilia Clarke is the star of this production. All I have to say is, watch out Keira Knightley and Emma Watson; there's a new, cute British girl on the block and she's absolutely adorable. I was also particularly impressed with the fact that she shamelessly rode a bike in a dress. In fact, she made it look pretty. Overall the cast did a fair job, and all suited their parts quite well.

Of course, as you can guess, the two fall madly in love. Lou dumps her boyfriend for this hunky billionaire. But wait, here's the "tear-jerker": He hates his life and wants to end it. Ok, so here's my problem: Moyes reeled me in. She gave me the jokes. I lost it at the horse scene, the bumble bee tights were about the sweetest thing ever, and the drag queen leprechaun shoes will be a line that I'll carry with me for the rest of my days. But I don't like her concept of everyone deserves to be selfish in life. Yes, everyone deserves to do something for themselves every once in awhile. That does not mean you should live your life selfishly. Moyes absolutely ruined this story for me, because by the end of the story EVERYONE was selfish. Let's break it down to every character.

First off we've got Lou's parents, who want their girls to stay with them and work to earn money for the family. It might be nice if they would be willing to let their daughters follow their dreams. Then we've got the sister, Trina, who just leaves her sister high and dry as she decides to go pursue her own career, leaving Lou with her parents. Then we've got Patrick, the boyfriend, who is totally consumed with fitness and not empathetic towards his girlfriend's dreams. However, I will give Patrick the benefit of the doubt; it appears that he does listen to Lou to a certain degree and even wants what he believes to be best for her. Then there are the Traynor parents, who want their son to live and are so terribly concerned for his health. But in the movie, how often were they actually home, spending time with Will, checking on him? I found his parents to be stoic, not terribly involved until he went to the hospital. And Will Traynor just broke my heart when he told Lou that he loved her, followed by his confession that he wanted to die. My response to that is that it's not really love, because love is about doing things for others. That's why Lou was willing to take care of Will for the rest of their lives. She loved him. Will's love is conditional, however, and he puts his own needs before Lou's as she has to watch the man she loves die. Finally, Lou, who you may be saying is the most loveable character in the universe, is selfish in the sense that she is completely unsympathetic towards her jerky boyfriend. Now if Lou hadn't done anything wrong and just broken up with him I would've been ok. But let me ask you this: If your significant other was spending an extensive amount of time with a dashing billionaire, wouldn't you all be a little concerned? And although one may argue that she was doing her job, there were some intimate moments between Will and Lou by that point, and she was not giving full disclosure about their trip. Rather than telling Patrick he was wrong about his feelings, she should've reassured him of her love for him. But no, everyone is selfish in this film, so Lou wants to run off and fall in love with a billionaire, not try to work things out with her boyfriend.

Overall, Moyes succeeded in making me fall in love with her characters. I truly did like them and tried to laugh with them. But she did not make me care about them. Your characters have to have some redeemable qualities about them, and if you're going to have everyone running around saying "I'm going to do what's best for me", then who cares what happens. Plus, her climactic moment on the beach would've been a lot more traumatic if Will would've said he wanted to kill himself, instead of Lou making the assumption. Honestly, Moyes' universal message of putting yourself first in life is uninspiring and is one I do not wish to take with me in life. Despite a good effort by the actors and director, the film just did not provide a storyline that I'm particularly fond of. Unfortunately, I'd have to give "Me before You" 2 out of 5 stars.

As always please comment your thoughts on the movie!