If I Stay - film review: 'The normally excellent Chloë Moretz fails to summon up any convincing emotion'

Based on Gayle Forman’s Young Adult best-seller, this film involves a girl (Chloë Moretz), a crash and a strange case of the almost dead
Self-obsessed: Chloë Moretz and Jamie Blackley (Picture: Allstar)
Charlotte O'Sullivan29 August 2014

In Portland, a diffident, super-talented cellist, Mia (Chloë Moretz), falls in love with a confident, super-talented rock singer/guitarist, Adam (Jamie Blackley). Then she and her family are involved in a car crash. A strange phenomenon allows Mia to watch the emergency services arrive at the scene of the collision and, later, take in all the events at the hospital. Meanwhile, flashbacks show us how her relationship with Adam develops. She and Adam squabble when she decides to audition for a place at Juilliard. Then it’s back to the ER. She’s still in a coma and her family members are not thriving. Mia scampers around the hospital ward. There’s no rest for the (almost) dead.

To be fair to RJ Cutler, his movie — based on Gayle Forman’s Young Adult best-seller — does contain sweet moments. Mia’s parents (Mireille Enos and Joshua Leonard) are into heavy rock. As Adam is brought into the fold, Mia’s own sense of being a cuckoo in the nest begins to fade and there’s a touching bit where musical differences are merged in a campfire duet.

The hospital-bound Mia, however, remains infuriating. It’s unclear if the normally excellent Moretz is bored or mystified by her lines. Either way, she fails to summon up any convincing emotion. With her frosted make-up and salon beautiful hair, she looks as spooky as Lisa-Marie Presley. This, in turn, makes it all the harder to understand why her character is the focus of such adoration. Not one person shows up at Mia’s bedside, yawns and starts scrolling through their phone. They just weep and detail her wonderfulness. It’s interesting to make a driven young female the focus of the narrative, but the cloying narcissism on display will soon have sane people — of all ages — wanting to give up the ghost.

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