If I Stay,
directed by R.J. Cutler
(PG-13, 106 minutes)
If I Stay is an earnest, sincere and very serious examination of fate versus will. It struggles to be relevant and insightful, but cliche-ridden writing keeps this film, based on the 2009 young adult novel of the same name by Gayle Forman, from achieving anything close to philosophical success.
Although the characters at first seem appealing, they turn out to be just like the cool-kid high school cliques that everyone despises: Mireille Enos as archly wise Portland, Ore., earth-mother Kat Hall, Joshua Leonard as Kat's almost-a-rock-star husband and perfect dad Denny Hall, Chloe Grace Moretz as their teenage daughter Mia, who grew up at her dad's gigs before escaping the household rock ethic by falling in love with a cello, Liana Liberato as Mia's pithy best pal Kim, Jamie Blackley as Mia's guitar-god boyfriend Adam Wilde, and the family's smugly alternative cohort of medical professionals, artists, musicians and whatnot, who gather for weekly "straggler" suppers of quinoa and veggies, locally brewed beer, and witty conversation.
If you don't like these people, you may not care what happens to them. And caring about them is essential when a lighthearted ride on a beautiful snow-frosted rural road turns into a tragedy that takes over the fate portion of the plot for the Hall family. You'd think that this crash would bring on a need for urgency that would end the hackneyed dialogue but it doesn't, as the film is mostly staged in flashbacks. Platitudes abound.
Watch the Hall family exchange clever remarks about local musicians at breakfast. See too-cool Adam sidle up to Mia at her high school locker and ask her out. Detect the tension that mars their budding relationship when Mia starts to think that maybe she'd like to get a prestigious music education instead of following Adam around while he plays not-very-good original songs at grubby bars. Observe the gravitas of Mia's grandfather (Stacy Keach) as he gets bad news about his family from physicians at a Portland hospital. And try to muster up some sympathy for Mia, who is invisibly perched in some sort of alternate dimension that allows her to view her critically damaged self in the ICU and figure out that her future isn't going to unfold the way she thought it would.
A nurse tells ventilator-supported Mia that it's up to her whether she makes it out of the ICU alive. The ethereal Mia ponders the question: Should she stay, or should she go?
It's not the actors' faults that this scenario fails to impress as a heart-rending catastrophe. They do what they can. The real disaster is that If I Stay may inadvertently provoke laughter instead of much more desirable empathy.
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MovieStyle on 11/21/2014