If I Stay
This is the second Chloë Grace Moretz film I've reviewed on this blog. Unfortunately the first one was a total disappointment. This one, however, exceeded my expectations.
The thing I loved most about this film is what an interesting take it was on a run-of-the-mill teenage romance. Based on the trailer, I thought it was going to be about two teens who fall in love and then at the very end, one of them gets in a car accident and dies.
It's actually about a girl named Mia (Moretz) who at the beginning of the film gets into a car accident with her parents and younger brother. She wakes up and sees herself being strapped to a stretcher, carted into an ambulance, and taken to the hospital for emergency surgery. It becomes clear that the Mia whom we are seeing walking around the hospital is actually her subconscious, deciding whether to give up her fight and die peacefully, or keep fighting and wake up to pain and no parents or brother. Through flashbacks, we see what her life was like before the accident - she was a talented musician applying for Julliard who comes from a loving, open home and who has a boyfriend, Adam (Jamie Blackley) who loves her.
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| Mia "waking up" and seeing the car accident around her |
There were a lot of juxtapositions in this film, which I loved. One moment, you would be watching an intense hospital scene with shouting nurses, crying family, loud heart monitors, and Mia's subconscious running around trying to find answers when all of a sudden the film would cut to a quiet, peaceful scene with just Mia and Adam walking along and holding hands. There was also the juxtaposition of the two main characters. Adam is the lead singer in a successful band, participates in underage drinking, and barely has anything to do with his parents. Mia is a quiet cellist who does not drink and is very, very close to her parents. These contrasts keep you on your toes for the whole movie, and keep the movie from getting boring.
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| Hectic scene vs. a calm one |
This movie was amazing all round. The casting was great, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, and I both laughed and cried. I give it a five out of five.
I saw this movie when it first came out and I was expecting it to be kind of like you said-love then tragedy, but probably with a happy ending like most movies. But you did a great job of highlighting how this movie was so much more than that! It really was quiet the emotional roller coaster of a film. Great Job!
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