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Although Chloë Grace Moretz gives it her all and the story adds an intriguing supernatural twist to its melodramatic YA framework, If I Stay is ultimately more manipulative than moving.
All Critics (136) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (88) | DVD (1)
The title refers to Mia's fraught decision-should she cling to existence or just give up?-and, well before the end, even loyal viewers will be begging her to hurry up and choose.
Documentarian R.J. Cutler, in his feature debut, joins Moretz in delivering this pap as if it meant something. Cue eye rolling.
For a drama pretty much aimed at 12-year-old girls, this is less superficial than you'd expect.
The great Young Adult Allowance Grab continues.
The heroine lies in the coma, but the audience may feel brain-dead by the end of If I Stay.
You want these people to have real challenges and messiness. But their lives don't quite feel lived in; they feel exemplary.
While she [Chloë Grace Moretz] is consistently strong throughout and is more than capable of carrying the film, the material bogs her down at moments with its tendency towards the mawkish and its obvious pitfalls.
What makes "If I Stay" a pleasant surprise is Moretz. She is so convincing here, delivering a performance that overcomes the moments when the film could have easily spiraled into Lifetime movie-level melodrama.
While If I Stay hopefully teaches no one lessons about romance, it does teach something beautiful about love.
Overall, we feel like we're being told a story...rather than being immersed in an experience. Moretz pours heart and soul into her self-immersed character, but this isn't quite enough to make If I Stay work on other levels.
The story's naïveté is matched only by its dullness.
The audience's conflict is whether or not to stay awake.
A shameless melodrama that follows The Lovely Bones as another schmaltzy teenage life-and-death joke, painfully interminable, full of unbearable exposition and corny lines, and downright manipulative, trying to make us cry at all costs with every cliché imaginable.
Super Reviewer
Melodrama has been defined and filmed from the inception of this medium, to now. It has often been attributed to the interests of women, sometimes even being called a "women's film." Some would argue that there's good melodrama ("Terms of Endearment," "Random Harvest.") and bad melodrama ("Lifetime" movies). This film falls into the latter, trying to merge supernatural romance and melodrama. Read more at http://www.bluefairyblog.com/reviews/2015/9/17/if-i-stay
Okay, I'll admit it, I was one of many sniffling in the cinema. Moving look at first love and loss. Though it's aimed at a teen audience, I suspect many older women would enjoy this too. Chloe Grace Moretz is excellent in this role as an 18 year old aspiring cello player who falls in love with a rock musician. Her ex rocker parents are also good characters and well cast. Then comes the car crash which takes everything away and perhaps even her life. Really wasn't sure I would like this, but I did. Nicely done.
I couldn't even stay to watch the ending of this movie, she took way to long to make a decision!
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