If I Stay

Starring: Chloe Grace Moretz, Mireille Enos, Jamie Blackley, Joshua Leonard, Liana Liberato, Stacy Keach, Aisha Hinds
Directed by: R.J. Cutler
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama, Music, Romance
2014

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her family are in a deadly car accident. She has an out-of-body experience as she tries to decide whether to join her deceased family members in the afterlife, or stay on earth.

Review:

Tim: If I Stay isn't a totally bad movie, but it does have some major flaws. The film is almost exclusively geared toward young teenage girls. I'm fine with delivering a film aimed at a certain demographic, but that will always limit your film's potential. The greatest films cross demographics. That doesn't happen here. If you're a young girl with limited life experience and a hopeless romantic, you'll probably eat this up. If you're anyone else, you'll find the experience problematic.

The biggest issue I had is with the overly manipulative quality of the story. I love movies that make you feel sad (that's hard to achieve), and there's always a little manipulation going on there. However, too often, films feel like they take a disingenuous, overly aggressive approach to generate tears. That is a turn off, and If I Stay is guilty of that on a few occasions. This isn't a completely fatal flaw (because it's really hard to get that balance right), but it does hurt the film a bit.

I also thought the back-and-forth nature of the story created a disjointed viewing experience. I found the most interesting sequences were when Chloe Grace Moretz was running around the hospital, seeing her family and friends in grief as they waited for news. Those scenes took a backseat to the flashbacks, where we learn about the characters. Now, the flashbacks are important, but they overwhelm the film. We spend so much time in them that the present time felt shortchanged. Every time we can back to the present, I'd think- "Great, now we can advance the story." 1-2 minutes later, we'd be back in a flashback. It effectively slowed the story down to barely a crawl. I didn't appreciate that. Some of the flashbacks are fascinating and give us piercing insight into the characters. Other feel like a bit of a waste of time. I understand the reason for the heavy flashbacks, but it doesn't give the film any sense of forward momentum.

The cast was fine, but this film couldn't shake the appearance of being a B-list team. Chloe Grace Moretz is likely the most talented in the cast. She has some great moments where it felt like she has no limit as an actress. There were other scenes that felt like she's regressed from her early childhood days. This film left me scratching my head as to Moretz's career trajectory. I hope her so-so performance was more of a reflection of the directing than her talent or effort. Jamie Blackley was fairly good as Adam. I see a career of middling films ahead for him, but he was decent in this movie. The rest of the supporting cast was fine, but there weren't really any standouts.

The movie felt a bit long at 107 minutes. I could have done with fewer flashbacks to get the run time down to 95 minutes or so. Some of the more melodramatic moments could have been cut as well. By the time the end of the film rolled around, I was ready for the film to end. Much of this criticism belongs to director R.J. Cutler, who was making his feature film directorial debut. While this isn't a terrible movie, it wouldn't surprise me if he returned to television. This film was too generic.

Another complaint I had is that the film sort of sets up a big decision (it's right there in the title)- will Moretz's character choose to fight and stay, or choose to let go and die? The film tries to set up the dilemma, but it feels like a fairly obvious choice if you think about it. Too often, this movie felt like a Hallmark television movie, not a major production. Now, I have to admit I loved the central question here- if your family died suddenly and you were clinging to life, would you just let go and end the pain and avoid the loneliness of living without them? Or, would you embrace the pain and the loss so that you could live and find love? There are some legitimately emotional pieces to this story.

You can certainly do worse than If I Stay. However, make sure you go into this with lowered expectations. It's a completely average film in every regard.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Remember Me, (500) Days of Summer, 50/50