Me Before You and Into the Forest

Me Before You

Not unlikea moist towelette, the romance Me Before Youis dripping with emotion and sanitized for your protection.Stepping away from her role in Game of Thrones,Emilia Clarke stars in Me Before Youas Lou, a young working-class woman taking a job as a personal care assistant. Her charge is Will Traynor (played bySamClaflin), a rich titanof finance who has sustaineda spinal cord injury.

With her cherubic disposition and wardrobe best described as CyndiLauper-meets-Bjork, Lou burstsinto Will's life like a veritable breath of fresh airor at least she would, if he wasn't such an ass. It seems the accident that left his body partially paralyzedalso removed any shred of decency in him.At least, that's where we start: this is a romance after all.

There are a few good things about Me Before You. Clarke is adorable as Lou, a character about as far away from GoT'sDaenerys as possible.AsthefrustratedWill,Claflin (who you may recognize as Finnick from The Hunger Games) cuts a striking profile and sneers with the best of them.

But [SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!]things take a turn when shediscovers his plans to end his life at Dignitas,the reallife clinic in Switzerland.

Leaving aside the complex issue of assisted dying, one of the film'sbiggest problems is how much Me Before You shields theaudience.For a supposed romance,it's surprisingly prudish.There's no practical discussion about sex, which Will admits he misses. For many disabled peopledealing with the very same care issues, Will is in an almost ideal circumstance: his family is so well off they own an actual castle.In addition to Lou, there is another personal care worker to do the heavy lifting.

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In fact,Me Before Youdoesn't reallyshowanyofthechallengingday-to-day realities facingthose living with quadriplegia.Instead, what we get is Willwith his Calvin Klein features sitting in his tastefully decorated sitting room, while his mother moons over a shrinememorializing the man he once was.

The movie, based on the novel byJojo Moyes,wants us to buy into the tragic romance of Will's choice,asking both Lou and the audience to support it.Yet the film doesn't evenhave the courage to truly show us what drove him to the decision. For a film with the catch phrase#LiveBoldly,Me Before You is a timid copout.

RATING: 2.5out of 5 stars

Into the Forest

Into the Forest is an exercise in managing expectations. Set ina near-future scenario where the West Coast is plunged into a never-endingblackout, thestory centres on sisters Nell (Ellen Page) and Eva (Evan Rachel Wood), who live in the woods with their quietly capable father (Callum Keith Rennie).

At first the sisters are surprisingly blas about their predicament, withNell focussedon her medical textbooks, as dancer Evaspends hours in her studio, jerking her body with a rigid kind of emotional fury.

• VIDEO |Ellen Page faces the apocalypse in survival drama Into the Forest

As director PatriciaRozema begins to torquethe tension, however, the actions of the two young womenare increasingly frustrating. Careless accidents and bad choices litter the story. But as the pace slackens and the true scope of the situationtakes holds, it's obviousthe filmmakerisn't playingby thetypical apocalyptic handbook.

There are no widescreen scenes oflooting,no horizon filled with smoking ruins. Isolated in the woods, information trickles in throughwhispers and rumours. As supplies dwindle, the two sisters only have themselves.

This is not The Road,nor Mad Max. Based onthe novel of the same nameby Jean Hegland, Into the Foresthas its share of dramatic scenes,but Rozema is more focused on the emotional effects of the crisis.

Nell finds her own strength as she adapts and evolves.Eva's arc is difficult to watch, but Rozema doesn't shy away from the harrowing aspects of her story. The result is a stark, emotional story about survival and sisterhood depicting not dystopiaper se,but a new beginning.

RATING: 3.5out of 5 stars