Me Before You
New Line Cinema | Release Date: June 3, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
13
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMay 25, 2016
The film will feel familiar to anyone who’s sniffled through "Love Story" or "The Fault in Our Stars." It’s better than both. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonKate LloydMay 31, 2016
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). Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 2, 2016
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. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTom RussoJun 2, 2016
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. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchLauren Chval RedEyeJun 2, 2016
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. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchLauren Chval RedEyeJun 2, 2016
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. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedJun 2, 2016
A first film by theater director Thea Sharrock, it goes down smooth as sherry. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie OgleJun 2, 2016
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. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekJun 2, 2016
Cheerful and efficient, this is the stripey tights of melodramas. Read full review
70
New York Daily NewsJoe DziemianowiczJun 1, 2016
The film belongs to Clarke. Her warm and winning star turn lifts this checklist chick flick. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJun 8, 2016
Me Before You isn’t going to win any awards for sophistication in storytelling or direction, but it tenderly reproduces the book’s most iconic scenes, and their tearjerking effect. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJun 7, 2016
Me Before You is such a wonderfully uncynical movie that it almost doesn’t matter that it isn’t very good. Read full review
67
The PlaylistKimber MyersJun 2, 2016
It’s successful in its aims and will ably bring the book’s readers and romance fans both joy and tears. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJun 2, 2016
Shameless in every way imaginable, Me Before You milks the pathos for all it's worth, but milks the comedy, too. Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittJun 2, 2016
Jojo Moyes adapted her own best-selling book, which helps give Me Before You a singular inviting vibe instead of feeling like "The Fault in Our Stars 2." Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 2, 2016
It also doesn't grapple deeply enough with the core questions it raises, settling for telling a sob story that will go down easy at the box office. Still, you can't blame audiences too much for being seduced by two shining young stars in a movie romance that hits the spot, bitter and sweet. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaJun 2, 2016
Luckily, many of the plot’s maudlin pitfalls are greatly mitigated by the film’s utterly infectious leading lady. Emilia Clarke’s performance is winningly immersed in charming gawkiness and heartfelt sincerity. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesKate ClarkJun 2, 2016
Overall, the film is sweet but often loses impact in its most serious moments by blasting a happy pop soundtrack. Read full review
60
Screen DailyCharles GantMay 24, 2016
Resistance to this delirious romantic tragedy is futile, save for that nagging voice in our head wondering if it really has to be this way. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 3, 2016
The only real acting in this movie comes from Janet McTeer and Charles Dance as Will’s aggrieved parents. They bring some ballast to this blubberfest. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickJun 2, 2016
Unfortunately, this ultra-glossy romantic drama derived from a best seller twists into very dark territory — a drastic tonal shift that neither its stars nor debuting director, Thea Sharrock, a respected stage veteran, manage with dramatic credibility. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 2, 2016
Me Before You is enjoyable in places, and Claflin eventually gives his character some depth beyond simply being angry. But the film exists mostly as a tear-production delivery system. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 2, 2016
Me Before You is a beautifully filmed and well-intentioned weeper marred by an unfortunate performance from one of the leads, and a plot development that leaves us more angry and frustrated than moved in the final act. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJun 2, 2016
Me Before You is just a little better than it had to be. It’s not so much better that it escapes being what it is, a sort-of romance, liberally sprinkled with moments of corniness and emotional dishonesty. But ultimately, when it matters, it’s truthful — about the people depicted, and who they are, and what they face. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 1, 2016
Clarke has loads of talent, but in Me Before You she's undermined by director Sharrock's technique, and an endless slew of overeager reaction shots (She's clumsy! She's twinkling!) exacerbated by editor John Wilson. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 26, 2016
Me Before You is a goofy, giddy doomed romance and female wish-fulfillment fantasy. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenMay 24, 2016
The chemistry between the leads and a few finely etched supporting turns provide welcome counterweight to the movie’s formulaic progression, welcome especially for those who have seen their fair share of entries in the love-story-with-medical-complication subgenre. Read full review
42
ConsequenceAllison ShoemakerJun 2, 2016
It’s all too calculated to really have an impact, to grant audiences an honest chance for catharsis. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJun 2, 2016
These are not good performances, exactly. Clarke is endearing, but verges on mugging. Claflin is at his best when Will gives in to his competitive urges, which happens exactly once. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyJun 2, 2016
There’s gentle manipulation, and then there’s having your arms manacled to a freight train of weepy catharsis, which is roughly the experience awaiting viewers of Me Before You. Read full review
40
VarietyAndrew BarkerMay 24, 2016
A melodrama with soft-rock ballads where its beating heart should be. Read full review
35
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeMay 24, 2016
Forget art, or even craft: This is the kind of movie that can’t even get its shameless audience-pandering in order. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 5, 2016
Clarke is so insistent on becoming the new adorkable life force that she’s excruciating to watch. The movie makes you admire all the more her restrained power in Game of Thrones, in which her eyebrows are largely stationary. Read full review
30
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 2, 2016
This floppy British romance, directed by Thea Sharrock and adapted by Jojo Moyes from her best-selling novel, sits at the point where tedium, ridiculousness and heartfelt sentiment converge, separated by an all-but-imperceptible distance. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Julia CooperJun 2, 2016
Despite its $20-million budget, Me Before You is cheap; and just like a person who has more money than he knows what to do with, this film equates wealth with value and vulnerability with death. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineEric HendersonJun 2, 2016
It punks its impressionable audience into believing a lie, then punishes them for their foolishness. Read full review
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