IF I STAY

Jeri Jacquin, Movie Maven

Coming to theatres from director R.J. Cutler and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer comes the book to screen from the novel by Gayle Forman with the question IF I STAY.

This film tells the story of Mia Hall (Chloe Grace Moretz), a young woman who is in love with classical music and her cello. Feeling a little out of place, Mia has an outgoing family including Mom Kat (Mireille Enos) and Dad Denny (Joshua Leonard) and little brother Teddy (Jakob Davies).

What she doesn’t expect is to fall in love with Adam (Jamie Blackley), a rocker who loves that Mia is so different. They spend every waking moment together but as Adam’s career grows, she is left more behind.

Her parents encourage her to apply to Julliard but life has other plans. On a snow day out with the family, a car accident brings everything to a halt. Now Mia, who is in a coma, is able to see and hear everyone around her.

She must decide if there is a life waiting for her or time to let go!

FINAL WORD: Moretz as Mia is totally endearing and beautiful. Accepting that she is different from her family, that all comes about because her family supports her dream. That is what makes this character so lovely. As the story unfolds, Moretz leads the audience through life, love and the ultimate decision – and does it gracefully.

Blackley as Adam is the rocker who has a soft spot for the cello – and the cello player. His character is somewhat stereotypical in that what is good for the musical goose isn’t at all good for the musical gander. Saw that coming long from 30 minutes into the film. That doesn’t mean Blackley didn’t perform well, he did! Perhaps I wished it could not have been so predictable.

Enos as mother Kat is cheery, supportive and spunky which is a far cry from her role in AMC/NetFlix THE KILLING. It was actually quite nice to see this side of her. Leonard as father Denny has so much to teach his young daughter about sacrifice and love, plus he’s funny. Davies as Teddy is just plain out adorable.

Other cast includes: Liana Liberato as Kim, Stacy Keach as Gramps, Gabrielle Rose as Gran, Ali Milner as Liz, Aisha Hinds as Nurse Ramirez, Lauren Lee Smith as Willow, Adam Solomonian as Henry and Chelah Horsdal as Liddy.

TUBS OF POPCORN: I give IF I STAY three and a half tubs of popcorn out of five. This is a well done film telling the story of a young girl faced with family, friends, life and the ultimate decision. I do have to say that it was a little longer than it needed to be to tell the story. It’s important to capture an emotion and not lose it in boredom and IF I STAY rides that line.

The casting is well done with Moretz at the helm holding it all together as it is Mia’s story that is being told. The music is beautiful and yes, I am a big fan of classical music so I was enjoying every note.

Author Gayle Forman began writing for such magazines as Seventeen, Elle and Glamour. In 2009 she released IF I STAY as Mia tells her story and received rave reviews and quite a following. The sequel to this book is WHERE SHE WENT and is told from Adam’s point of view after the accident. Yes, that’s on my ‘must read’ list as of now.

In the end – live for love.