If I Stay – Film Review
Director: R.J. Cutler
Starring: Chloe Moretz, Jamie Blackley, Liana Liberato, Mireille Enos and Joshua Leonard
Release Date: Out Now
Mia Hall (Chloe Moretz), a promising teenage cellist living in Portland, Oregon, has an out-of-body experience after suffering a car accident with her family. Invisible to those around her, she observes as the situation worsens and, looking back on her life, she ultimately must decide whether to stay or let go and move to the other side in If I Stay, which is based on the book by Gayle Forman.
It would seem that the reputation of the original book (previously unknown to this reviewer), is that it is a tear-jerker. Now, who doesn’t love a good tear-jerker, be it a book or a film (or any other format for that matter)?
There is nothing quite like a story that “tugs at your heart strings” as they say, and somewhat manipulates you into evoking a vulnerable and emotional expression (AKA crying). It’s very possible that the original book accomplishes this with the right kind of skill and grace.
Sadly, the film is just a clunky and forced endeavor.
The dialogue, put simply, is awful. Every single line said in this movie is just a horrible, two-dimensional statement with no subtlety or realism. Most of the time, the characters are just saying out loud what they’re thinking. And worse yet, when they’re not doing that, they’re just saying out loud who they are as a person.
Being set around the music scene of Portland, the film is also laden with painfully forced, Wikipedia level references to punk bands and rock legends. While the cast very impressively add a casual tone to the bad dialogue, these music references come out particularly mechanistic.
As mentioned, the cast’s performance is impressive. Chloe Moretz is capable of carrying the movie which centres on her character and voice-over narration. She even manages to evoke a sympathy and likability to Mia, despite the problematic writing.
This is something the rest of the cast do too and, to be fair, this could also be credited to the film’s direction. There is a nice feel to it but at the same time, something’s not quite right. There’s a strong sense of forced realism or non-casual casualness.
The real problem with the film though is the structure. The film jumps back and forth over its timeline and, supposedly, the point is that Chloe Moretz’s character spends her metaphysical experience weighing the values of her life.
But instead, most of the film’s duration is spent covering her sort of rocky (but not really) relationship with her boyfriend, played by Jamie Blackley. The traumatic and tragic elements of the overall story is treated like a footnote a lot of the time.
In fact, so much so that I actually forgot about the impending car accident…. twice.
There just doesn’t seem to be a strong story connection between her out of body experience and her relationship with her boyfriend. As previously mentioned, this is the only thing that’s strongly covered, far more so than the out of body experience itself, which is the films hook.
As crazy as it might sound, this probably would’ve been a better movie if it was just about the relationship and the car crash was taken out. It still wouldn’t have been particularly good, as her life leading up to the accident doesn’t contain a lot of conflict, outside of a very very basic concern about her future. This is not to say a film can’t solely be about this kind of thing, but it would require more character development than this film provides.
Still, If I Stay could have been improved by removing that, only supposedly, important aspect of the story. That way, it could have just been a film about two good looking teenagers that make out in front of the camera too much and realise they’re in love about three times, as though the previous times never happened.
That would not be a great movie, but there’s a very shallow attempt to be profound in If I Stay, with the metaphysical side of the story. And given the fact that Moretz’s character has such a good life, it doesn’t feel warranted.
The tragedy elements feel tacked on and there’s a horrible lack of sensitivity towards certain sadder details of the event. This is the kind of thing that has been done before much more successfully in films like What Dreams May Come, which aren’t afraid to tap into the darker, more complex elements of their story.
In the end though, there’s a possibility that this film will still have an audience in the fans of the book, which might be successful in spite of the same problems.
My hope is that it tells this story better in its original format, because the truth is there was potential in the characters and story that did give a little charm and appeal, beyond the talent of the cast.
Unfortunately, the poor development and clunky structure just completely let it down.
Ultimately If I Stay just comes off as manipulative melodrama. Despite its efforts to feel realistic and despite the capability of its cast, it just comes off as rigid and far too inorganic.
It may hit its key demographic, but it won’t be much to remember after that.
Score: 2.5/5
Written by Seamus Hanly
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