'Me Before Me' Netflix Review: What Makes Family Worth It? 

Don’t be confused by the title of this Indonesian movie, for it has nothing to do with Me Before You. Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I must admit that when I started watching this movie with no prior knowledge of what it’s about, I found it a little bit tedious at the beginning. It’s not exactly boring, no, but I couldn’t fully grasp what it was trying to convey. However, having said that, it ironically gets more and more spoon-feedy by the end of the film. This is not necessarily a bad thing. But it just means that it takes some time for the story to set in before it becomes an emotional journey. Me Before Me, also titled Aku Sebelum Aku, follows an Indonesian boy named Jati, an adolescent who is a bit of an overachiever academically, but struggles a bit socially. He’s definitely got anxiety, and finds it hard to interact with people his own age. When he loses a race and his father yells at him for it, giving him a lecture about how coming in 6th is a bad thing, he becomes more of a recluse and ends up getting into a fight because everyone seems determined to make him an outcast. This is when his mum takes matters into her own hands and decides to switch his school. Jati is sent to a special school that includes kids who are different, like him. What follows is a series of events that lead Jati to dig into the past of his family and what his history means to him. 

The film is about generational trauma, which follows a child into parenthood. Yes, parents are also parents for the first time, and most of the time, they do their best to give their children a better lifestyle than what they received. Especially if their childhood looked like something you don’t want to live through again. This is the basic philosophy of the film, but we see it in the form of a coming-of-age film for Jati, who is essentially too smart to deal with this “problem.” Already, being a teenager is hard enough, but the pressure to always be the best, and at your best, is quite near impossible to cope with. 

But Jati is the kind of boy who wants to break down boundaries; he wants to connect with his father, who dismisses him when Jati doesn’t follow his path. It’s not necessarily an extraordinary story, especially for Asian families, but the film handles the matter with tenderness, reaching us especially in the latter half. I can’t say it’s deeply emotional, because that would be straight-up lying. However, I did find it enjoyable after a certain point. I just think it takes way too long to establish itself as telling a story of generational trauma. It doesn’t necessarily start off like that, but I understand why too. However, at 2 hours 7 minutes, I do think the film is far too long to manage to feel as wholesome as it hopes to be. Still, I can’t dismiss it entirely because it definitely feels like something people will connect with. 

Bima Sena plays Jati, the protagonist of this film. He’s very good in the role and definitely knows how to hit the emotional beats well. There are moments where he has to rebel in rage, and other momentss which are more quiet, and emotionally harder to portray. He does a great job in both roles. Ringgo Agus Rahman is definitely thorough in his role as Jati’s father, but I must admit that the young boy takes the cake for the most part. He’s striking both in appearance and the way he carries the film on his young but capable shoulders. The scenes shared by them are definitely very well done, and you feel the emotional dissonance between them through the screen. This is what makes the film watchable, really. Then there are the other students, who do a great job of setting up the situation really well. Without them, Jati wouldn’t have had enough fun to understand what’s going on with him. 

Me Before Me is trying its best to give us a lesson in not just Jati’s past, but Indonesia’s history too. It struggles in its sluggish runtime to actually establish some of these side plots well. It also occasionally feels like it’s distracting from the main subject of mental health and family trauma. I can’t say I would’ve kept watching if it weren’t for work. But as something that’s playing in the background, especially for someone who hasn’t watched Indonesian media before, it’s definitely a good entry point on Netflix. Now I can’t say that on the whole it’s a great film; it’s definitely got its faults, but it’s not a bad one either. Especially on a platform like Netflix. The truth is, after the first 45 mins or so, it’s actually enjoyable, but you’ve got to be patient enough to get there. The film is trying its best to feel authentic, yet remain trauma-forward. This is a hard task to pull off, and I’m happy it tries. It’s certainly a good attempt. Visually, it’s very well done. It’s written and directed by a woman, which makes complete sense with how sensitively it handles the subject. It feels like it comes from real interactions and experiences. It’s also sensitively handled, which is very important for a film about a young boy and rage. 

But at the end of the day, objectively speaking, I found Me Before Me lackluster, and though I appreciate the attempt, but in trying to be objective, I will give it 2.5 out of 5 stars. It’s definitely got potential and can be inspiring. I am not dismissing those factors; I just wish it were crisper and more focused on doing fewer things really well.