Tuesday, 30 June 2015

Hardly a matter of life and death

If I Stay (2014)

Directed by R. J. Cutler this film based on the novel of the same name stars Chloe Grace Mortez, Jamie Blackley and Mireille Enos. A 17 year old cellist is in a car accident with her family and during an out of body experience has to decide to live or die.

The main problem I have with this film is that it does not set up a clear character problem in the early parts to give enough jeopardy when it comes to the protagonist deciding to live or die. What we get is a pretty standard teen romance story told in flash back which is a disappointing use of the framing narrative. There is something to be said for the idea of needing to let your parents go to fulfil a coming of age narrative but I do not think this is the right set of events to explore that metaphor and the script does not really do that anyway.


2/5

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