If I Stay (2014)

If I Stay (2014)

Starring:  Chloë Grace Moretz, Mireille Enos, and Jamie Blackley.

Directed By: R.J. Cutler

Plot: Mia Hall is an aspiring cello player, who has plans to go to Julliard.  However, her life takes an unexpected turn when she falls for Adam Wilde, and older, up and coming rock star, and she builds a complex relationship with him.  After a series of positive and negative developments in the following year and a half, her dreams are unexpectedly cut short when she and her family become the victims of a serious car accident.  When Mia wakes up, she realizes that she's having an out-of-body experience, which allows her to witness the people she cares about react to the tragic event, including Adam.  As the hour tick by, she will have to decide whether she wants to leave this world and the pain that comes with it, or stay for the people she cares about.

The crash

Characters: For the most part, the acting in this film is pretty good, with a few stand out performances.  All of the cast members are performing to the best of their ability, and no one seems to be slacking-off, which tends to happen in teen movie like this.  The emotions that the characters experience feel genuine, which helps the audience feel sympathy for them during the sad moments.  However, none of them are particularly amazing, and many of the characters are bland and forgettable, save for a few.  

A family dinner

Chloë Grace Moretz does a great job as the lead, Mia.  She does an amazing job pulling off the sadness her character experiences.  Her best scenes are when she's grieving over the loss of her family in the car accident.  She's also pretty good during the scenes when she's more happy, although those moments don't make as much of an impact as the more dramatic ones.  As a character, Mia is a fine protagonist.  She's hardworking, she's kind, she cares for her family, she has a genuinely likable personality.  However,  other than her love of the cello and distaste for rock music, there isn't really anything that makes her unique among the hundreds of other young adult protagonists, which makes her a pretty bland character.

"What am I gonna do?  I'm being completely torn in half."

Jamie Blackley as Adam does a serviceable job, but he's not fantastic.  His reactions during the emotional scenes are well done, but in the rest of the scenes he's not that interesting.  As a character, Adam doesn't fare much better.  He's the typical boyfriend with a tough exterior and a heart of gold that's been done a million times.  His chemistry with Mia is okay, but it's nothing exceptional about it.  

"I'm not really good at writing about things that make me happy."

     

Despite being surrounded by mediocrity, there is one underrated performance that really stands out.  Stacy Keach does a very heartfelt and poignant performance as Mia's grandfather (a.k.a. Gramps), and he's probably the best element in this movie, in spite of having a small role.  It's obvious that he deeply cares for his family, and the loss of his son and his grandson has taken a huge toll on him.  Despite this, he understands that if she decides to go, it's her decision, and he accepts that.  The scene where he tells her that is the best scene in the whole movie, and I hope Keach gets more significant work in the future.

"It's okay if you want to go." 

Writing: The biggest letdown in the film would have to be the way the story is written.  The concept of a teenager having an out of body experience and reflecting on her life up to this point has a lot of potential, and the director could've done some very unique things with it.  Mia could've looked at the impact she's made on her friends and family, and eventually learn to cherish the life she has.  When the plot does touch on this the writing is pretty good, and it leads to a lot of emotional moments.  One example of this is when [SPOILERS!] Mia finds out that her little brother died from an epidurnal hematoma.  

"I want it to end!"

Unfortunately, it spends too much time on a romance that's full of cliches that cuts off the more interesting bits before they can be expanded upon.  There's the infatuation, the first date, the happy relationship bit, the misunderstanding, the breakup, it's all been done before.  Yes, I understand that this film is intended to be a romance, and it wants to stay true to the source material.  However, if the film wanted to focus on the romance, it should have made the characters more interesting and their love story less stereotypical.

 "...love, it never dies, it never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hold on to it."

One final point to be made about the writing is that the story ends very abruptly.  I wouldn't even say it ends, so much as, comes to a screeching halt.  Once Mia makes her final choice, we get one small line of dialogue, then credits immediately start running.  It's very jarring, and leaves the audience asking questions about what happened next.  It would have been interesting to follow the characters after the decision is made and see their reactions to it.  It would only need to be an extra five minutes of footage, which wouldn't have taken too long to write, film, and edit. 

Production: The look of the film is pretty good for the most part, if fairly standard.  There's very little stylistic choices made, which fits well with the tone of the film.  The only scene where things look stylized is when Mia is about to make her choice, and the outside world looks very colorful to an unrealistic degree, almost like it has a Photoshop filter over the footage.  This helps make the moment feel more surreal.  

Mia's choice

Another good thing about the production is the music.  The rock and roll is okay, but whenever Mia plays her cello, it's gorgeous to listen to.  There's one particularly great scene where Mia plays her cello with Adam's guitar, and the combination sounds amazing and unique.  It helps emphasize the fact that while these characters are very different, they fit together well.  The official soundtrack is pretty generic, but it's not bad.  The music fits well with the tone of each scene, and it especially works during the moments where emotions run high.

Trivia:

•  Chloë Grace Moretz had to wear a wig during filming, since she had short blond hair at the time.
• Although Moretz learned to play the cello for the part, she wasn't quite good enough by the time filming started.  Therefore, a body double was used for the scenes where Mia is playing the instrument with Moretz's face added to the frame.
• R.J. Cutler gave each cast member a personal iPod that contained music that their characters listened to.

Final Verdict: If I Stay is full of cliches, predictable characters, and many missed opportunities.  If the film took more risks and used unique ideas, this would be a definite recommend.  But since it refuses to expand upon its interesting ideas, it doesn't appeal to me.  However, if you enjoy the tropes in films like this, I would definitely recommend this film to you.

Next time, we'll take a look at Terry Gilliam's vision of a dystopian future.

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