+4
Ok, finally watched If I Stay last night with my gf. I was expecting the absolute worst and made sure booze and THC were flowing steadily throughout my body before PLAY was touched. These kind of movies are not normally my thing and didn't expect this particular film to be any different.
That said, I was pleasantly surprised. Certainly not the train wreck I was anticipating. I thought at times it was far too melodramatic and manipulating, but I dug several aspects of the movie, especially the girl's parents and their relationship. I'm sick and tired of every parent in movies being virtual clones. It's refreshing to see lively, free-willed, foul-mouthed, hip, rocker parents. There's a lot more of them out there than cinema portrays, so it's a great change of pace to see those characteristics. There were two scenes that stood out involving the parents.
The first was when the mother came home one day and found the father sitting in the hall in the dark listening to his daughter playing the cello from another room. The look on his face was one of anguish, like, "Would she please stop playing that damn thing!" And those really were partially his thoughts. He told his wife she's been playing all day. She asked if he wanted her to go tell her to knock it off. He told her no and explained that while it's annoying, he's never seen her or anyone else so passionate about something, and while it was aggravating to hear the instrument hours on end, he liked seeing her doing something she loved so much. To me, that was the best scene of the movie and showed the genuine love he had for his little girl.
The second scene involving her parents that I liked was between her and her mother. It was when she came home the day after New Year's Eve after enduring something highly emotional. She saw the pain in her eyes and kicked everyone out of the kitchen so they could talk. The conversation they had was very cool and just what you'd expect from a mother of her persona: gentle tough, and real. It was some of the best parenting advice I've ever heard in both film and real life.
There was also two moving scenes between the main character and her grandfather, but I don't want to give the impression the entire movie is bout the main character and her family. It's important, but most of the film centers around her and a young man she meets and their ensuing relationship. I certainly enjoyed the family aspect of the film, but the romance side wasn't bad. My biggest complaint with movies like this is the male lead. Usually the character is some arrogant, pretentious moron that makes me want to throw my toaster at the tv. The male lead in this one was actually fairly decent and didn't raise my blood temperature too high. Both him and their relationship didn't sail too far into the Sea of Cheese and found a nice balance between entertaining adults and teens.
The star of the movie was Mia, played by Chloe Grace Moretz. Moretz packed in a fairly strong performance. The movie was a good vehicle to display her acting prowess. Not sure if she can excel outside the rom-com genre but I definitely enjoyed her here. There really wasn't any part of the film where I thought her acting was too fake. Most of it was pretty believable and enjoyed her character.
Overall, as dirty, embarrassed, and shameful as I feel about saying this, I enjoyed If I Stay. I will vehemently deny this around my male friends and instead tell a fart joke followed by a manly fist-bump. But yeah, this will secretly be a movie I found appealing and may watch it again in a few years alone in the dark with the curtains pulled to.
I'll give this one a 2.5, possibly 3, out of 5 star rating. That may sound a little low considering the positive things I said about it, but if you knew me you'd know that's a stellar score on my part for a rom-com.
I just realized I wrote a lengthy review and said good things about a rom-com and will promptly go see a psychiatrist tomorrow just to make sure everything is ok in Brain Land.
__________________
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.
Edgar Allan Poe
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