The right to death with dignity?

Rating: 6/10 (5 April 2019)

We all have the right to a life of dignity... but what about the right to death with dignity?
Financial wizard, Will Traynor is a quadriplegic (paralysis from the shoulders down) who's living at home with his parents in a castle that lies on the edge of a small English village. He's been paralyzed for 2 years and despite all his efforts at physical therapy only has movement in his thumb plus facial muscles. His parents have created a safe environment for him: a conversion of their large castle's stables into a comfortable home, a male nurse to feed, clean, bathe and change him and now a friendly, quirky companion in Lou Clarke. Unspoken is Traynor's mother's prayer: Clarke will dissuade Traynor from his self-made appointment with death in six months.
Director Thea Sharrock (The Hollow Crown, As You Like It) effectively handles the introduction of this heated, controversial subject in this light romance by giving us the perspective of one life... a life that could go on into the distant future with heavy medical involvement, a life that could continue to contribute to society, a life that could perhaps find satisfaction in this "lesser" state. The mostly new-to-feature film director, writer and young leading cast, are well-supported by a cinematographer with decades of experience, Remi Adefarasin OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) (Match Point, About a Boy, Elizabeth).
Sam Claflin (Snow White and the Huntsman, The Hunger Games) plays the quadriplegic Traynor, the romance male-lead, with Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) his companion. They both have faces that are great for screen closeups, important when bodies can't move. Clarke, famously known for playing Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons, has a face so mobile her eyebrows seem to do acrobatics far removed from her stoic face in Game of Thrones. She also has a lot more to say in a candid, quirky manner, which soon brings out the mischievous side of Traynor, always up for a dare and adventure. The movie is carried by the two and they do a good job interacting.
Me Before You could have been set anywhere in the world, but the castle-village setting suits-if you have a Lord of the Manor character, why not give him one, with the young, naïve love interest played by a village girl. Also to emphasize the wealthy lifestyle is the private jet they use to go on holiday-very fairytale, Mills & Boon romance, a formula that has worked for decades.
Dialogue does flow and is well matched to the accompanying actions, not surprising as author Jojo Moyes also wrote the screenplay. The challenge of showing the life extreme-sports-devotee Traynor had before becoming a quadriplegic is easily and effectively solved when Clarke finds a short video (set to James Bond music) of Traynor doing many athletic feats-diving off cliffs into the sea, water skiing, bungy/sky jumping-narrated by a group of his admiring friends. Traynor definitely craved and loved physical adventure and his body was very toned and fit. Cut to his life now, immobile, needing assistance even to lift his head off his pillow or sitting, staring fixedly out of the window at the flat, colourless countryside, the only thing still agile being his mind and slowly recovering sense of humour.
The right to a dignified life for all is cemented in most constitutions across the globe. To choose when to die is something only provided for in some places, and only for those who have reached the hospice state of care when the doctor certifies that the patient only has a short period of time left to live, that death is inevitable from illness, disease, or injury, and that there are no medical interventions that can change this. At such a time the patient can choose death assisted by medical staff. But what if one is stuck in between: a diminished physical life that cannot improve but continues with high medical care and cost and still an acute mental ability. If such a person decides against living, are there ethical, social, moral, religious, spiritual, personal rights to be observed? Protected? Should that person too be allowed to choose death, or is it "murder" as one of the support actors states.
This is one of several books, movies and documentaries I've seen recently on the right to choose death, something many with the means have been doing for a time now. Well worth a watch, the viewer can take from it what they choose: the light-hearted fare of a chick-flick or the deeper philosophical discussion.