If I Stay – Review by Frank L.
Director: R.J. Cutler
Writers: Shauna Cross (screenplay), Gayle Forman (novel)
Stars: Chloë Grace Moretz, Mireille Enos, Jamie Blackley

Based on what is nowadays called a young adult novel by one Gayle Forman, If I Stay is set In Portland Oregon where Mia (Chloe Grace Moretz) lives, still just a schoolgirl, and has a father, Denny (Joshua Leonard) who gave up his rock band to become a teacher so he could give time to bringing up Mia and her younger brother Lenny (Jakob Davies) whom Mia adores. His wife, Kat, (Mireille Enos) is a somewhat unusual working mother who has her family in the centre of her life without being overly protective. What makes the family a little bit out of the ordinary is that Mia has an innate talent for the classical cello. To be admitted to The Juilliard School in New York is her ambition. Her beauty is noticed by Adam (Jamie Blaklie) as she practises the cello at school and he is smitten. He is the lead singer and guitarist in a rock band which is just starting to break into the big time. He is obsessed by Mia, she less so by him but they start to date. They have rows. Her desire to go to New York, the Juilliard, being the main bone of contention. This is all just a variation on a theme of the familiar boy/girl story and is pretty well trodden turf and nothing wrong in that.

However, the terrain is altered when the entire family is involved in a near fatal car accident. Mia is in intensive care and then goes through an out of the body experience as she has to determine whether to wake up from her coma to a world that will be very different.

While Moretz and Blacklie both act their respective parts competently, nothing occurs which brings their girl/boy romance out of the mundane and into the Romeo and Juliet category. Adam giving her a gift of a silver bracelet of a cello and a guitar lying side by side, however inspired and thoughtful, was pure schmaltz. The script had little fire or imagination in it and neither of them were able to bring any sparkle to it. The hospital emergency scenes of 8 medics or so running along a corridor pushing a gurney while yelling instructions to each other is a standard part of hospital dramas and while well-choreographed, they added little to the story. Similarly the attempts by Adam to gain entrance to the intensive care ward where Mia was lying unconscious were underwhelming. On reflection, the most successful scenes were Mia playing her classical cello either in performance or practising but such scenes hardly make the most creative use of the possibilities of the cinema screen.

It all lasts just over an hour and forty five minutes and the grey gentle rain which greeted me as I left the cinema was in harmony with my mood.