Sonic Cinema

Sounds, Visions and Insights by Brian Skutle

If I Stay

Grade : A Year : 2014 Director : Running Time : Genre :
Movie review score
A

“If I Stay” is based on a celebrated YA (Young Adult) novel (by Gayle Forman), yet it’s NOT a fantasy romance in a dystopian world of some sort? What kind of movie is this?

In short, the best kind. This film is a heartbreaking work about love and loss that poses an impossible quandary: If the main character, who is in a coma after a car accident, lives, she will be without her loving parents and younger brother, whom have all died in the accident. If she dies, she will not only lose a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at pursuing her dream, but also leave the rocker love of her life, and the rest of her friends and family, shattered. At *this* moment, meaning the film, Mia (Chloe Grace Moretz) is stuck in limbo; the choice is left to her. Either decision comes with difficult trade offs.

While there’s a part of this film that resonated hard for me as we come up on a year after my father died, what really made me lose it emotionally about this film, delicately written by Shauna Cross and directed by RJ Cutler, is thinking back to my own hospitalization, and near-death experience, in 2007. It was a self-inflicted hospitalization– I have asthma and breathing problems, and wasn’t dealing with them –but it was a profound moment, when I ended up in a medically-induced coma for eight days. Eight days, which I will never get back. When I went in, I had a collapsed lung, and the doctor’s would say that if I had been minutes later, I wouldn’t have made it. From that moment on, I realized that there was a reason for me living, although I still find myself searching for what that reason might be. For Mia, she knows when she makes her decision the reasons she makes it. Watching her make that decision was a deeply emotional experience for me, because even though I didn’t have an out-of-body experience such as the one Mia has in the film (at least not one that I remember), questions of life and death weighed heavily on my mind at the time, and continue to linger now. I am grateful that I am around now, though, because life has been better since 2007 than it was before. It was a game-changer for me to get my life in order, and make the most of things.

For Mia, the choice is tricky. As time passes after the accident, she loses each of her parents, as well as her little brother: her mother (Kat, played by Mireille Enos) died instantly, while her father (Denny, played by Joshua Leonard) hung on during a surgery, but didn’t last long after (this was the moment that reminded me most of my father’s passing, as his last weekend was similar in it’s highs and lows), and her brother (Teddy, played by Jakob Davies) seemed to be out of the woods until complications arose. Because we are following Mia’s spectral self around after the accident, we see each of her reactions as each family member passes, and it’s powerful stuff, further confirming that Moretz is going to continue to be a force to be reckoned with as she grows up. All the while, we are shown flashbacks of her life, and see how close her and caring her family is. If you told me these four were a family in real-life, I would believe it, which you can’t really say about a lot of cinematic families, because the chemistry between them is ridiculously strong. Cutler (a documentarian-turned-narrative filmmaker) seems to have approached the film like one might a documentary, going for truth and an honest emotional experience than just throwing actors into a room and yelling “action” (not that other directors would necessarily go that route, but I think you get my point), and it serves the film immeasurably. Each part of this film has been put together to make it feel real rather than fabricated, and because it’s seen from the perspective of a young woman who is having an out-of-body experience, that need for the movie to feel real is heightened. Cutler does a great job of doing that, and cutting (no pun intended) to the heart of the matter, and the truth of each scene.

If the film were just that, Mia’s spirit self in the hospital, following around her family and friends (including a devastating Stacy Keatch as Mia’s grandfather) as they try to process the tragedy of what happened, that would be enough to make “If I Stay” stick. But the film has a young love romance to tell, as well, and in addition to the flashbacks of Mia and her family, we see her relationship with Adam (Jamie Blackley) develop, as well. A year older than Mia in grade (he’s a senior while she’s a junior), he’s actually all ready for adulthood, and the real world. He’s in a local band that is a big deal around town, so he’s set for school to be done. Mia, who is in awe of Adam from afar, is a brilliant cello player (she’s been playing since she was a kid), and an introvert who has blinders on to the rest of the world. When Adam walks past her practicing one day, though, he’s immediately fallen for her, seeing something of himself in the passion she plays with. Their relationship blossoms, and has a big impact on both of them, but with Adam graduating a year early, and having success with his band, and Mia wanting to take her musical talent to Julliard in New York, their lives seem to be at a crossroads, and the honeymoon is over for the couple. At the time of the accident, they are estranged. If Mia stays, will they come back together? The movie does a great job of teasing the issue for those of us who haven’t read the book.

The musical aspect of the film is another big reason “If I Stay” worked so well for me, in addition to the smart, emotional writing and terrific performances and chemistry of the actors. Music plays a big role in the story, and it’s a huge part of the collective experience. Whether it’s the classical pieces emanating from Mia’s cello, the rock songs we hear from Adam’s band and guitar, or the touching collaboration on “Today” by Smashing Pumpkins in a key flashback late in the film, this is another late summer movie (after “Guardians of the Galaxy,” still to be reviewed) where music is vital to the movie’s success, all at the service of a story that is beautifully realized and emotionally powerful for a variety of reasons.

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