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R.J. Cutler
If I Stay (2014) is almost a good movie. The way the director
weaves together
comedy and melodrama, present and past, is powerful as well as charming.
But he obviously doesn't know how to end the story without resorting to the
most trivial of happy endings.
Mia,
a teenager who has never dated before is slowly becoming a cello virtuoso.
She has only one friend, Kim, and it is Kim who notices that Adam is getting
interested in Mia. Adam plays in a rock band and is very popular. When
he asks Mia out on a date, she cannot refuse, especially since it is a
classical music concert. Mia's parents are way wilder than her conservative
daughter. Her father used to play in a rock band just like Adam and her
mother used to be a groupie. They actually encourage Mia to go out with Adam.
One night when she begs him to take her home before curfew her mother
whispers from the window to just go and have fun instead. But Mia is a tough
nut to crack, and school is still her priority.
Then one icy day the family drives away in their old car and get into
an accident. Mia wakes up by the side of the road and sees ambulances and
fire trucks. As she wanders around in shock she realizes that she, Mia,
is lying unconscious in a stretcher that is about to be hauled into an
ambulance. She gets into the ambulance and follows the comatose Mia to the
hospital.
Here the flashbacks begin to multiply. On one hand Mia the ghost is running
around the hospital trying to find out what happened to her family (and
eventually she finds out that her little brother Teddy is still alive).
On the other hand her memories tell us of how she fell in love with the cello,
how her father bought her an expensive one, how she fell in love with Adam,
how Adam became more and more successful and started touring with the band,
leaving her alone for longer and longer periods, and how she applied to the
top school for classical music and was granted an audition; and how this
finally caused Adam to leave her.
The flashbacks depict a happy, funny family, which in fact attracts Adam,
who grew up basically with no family, as much as Mia's beauty does.
Mia the ghost at the hospital sees her grandparents arrive, sees Kim arrive,
sees Adam arrive... and leave.
The flashbacks show that Adam came back one night to encourage her, and
her granpa drove he to the audition and encouraged her even more, mentioning
how her dad had also been musically gifted but had to give up music for his
family.
Back to the hospital, Kim and Adam try in vain to get into Mia's room.
She is in intensive care and nobody is allowed to approach her except
close family. Adam is almost ejected from the hospital for trying.
Mia the ghost hears that her little brother is dead. It is another
terribly shock that is reflected on Mia the comatose patient, whose
conditions worsen. But later her granpa takes her bedside and tells her
in tears of how she got the expensive cello: her father quit his rock band,
sold his equipment, and bought an expesive cello for his little girl who
was such a musical prodigy. Mia the ghost realizes what a sacrifice her
father made for her to become a musician. Finally, Adam is allowed to enter
the room and talk to the comatose Mia.
Adam reads the letter that he found at her place:
she has been accepted by the top music college. And he swears that he will
follow her there... if she stays. Then he sings the song that he has composed
for her. In a typical Hollywood-ian happy ending,
she opens her eyes.
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