#ifistayin Tweets
A refresher . . .
If I Stay
MGM
November 18, 2014
106 minutes; PG-13
starring: Chloë Grace Moretz, Mireille Enos, Jamie Blackley
on IMDb/buy on Amazon
movie synopsis:
Life changes in an instant for young Mia Hall after a car accident puts her in a coma. During an out-of-body experience, she must decide whether to wake up and live a life far different than she had imagined. (from IMDb)
about the book:
Just listen, Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel.
I open my eyes wide now.
I sit up as much as I can.
And I listen.
Stay, he says.
Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?
Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.
If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make.
If you have already read the book - and maybe Where She Went, too - than you have already experienced Mia's story.
You've read as Mia and Adam fall in love, as she and her family interact . . . as she is forced to make a truly heartbreaking choice. If I Stay is a book that doesn't go easy on the emotion (at all; obviously) but also has some brilliant story.
If I Stay the movie works because everything so fabulous about the book, is there. If you've read the book, you get to see it come to life. If you haven't, you'll see what seemed a very true portrayal of Forman's novel . . . and likely want to read the book(s).
There were things I had forgotten that I loved about the book, like Mia's quirky family and their interactions, but the movie did a great job reminding me. Even - maybe especially - knowing what's to come, the scenes with Mia, her parents and her brother are so lovely. They're humorous, their touching and they feel oh so very real.
Chloe Grace Moretz as Mia, Jamie Blackley as Adam and Mireille Enos as Kat, Mia's best friend have great chemistry. Right from the very beginning, there is obviously something between Mia and Adam. As we see more of their relationship, they have the perfect blend of the sweet, in love and the awkward, new relationship. What we see between Mia and Kat really feels like two best friends. It's cute, it's funny . . . and it's all heartbreaking when juxtaposed with the accident and Mia's choice.
The movie is beautifully filmed. The flashbacks, where we learn Mia's story prior to the accident, are lively and colorful, busy while the 'present' scenes with Mia's family and friends, with Mia have an almost stark quality. It not only helps clearly distinguish the two periods, it elevates the emotional impact.
The music in If I Stay - both the soundtrack and the music the different characters play is fantastic. For a story where music is so much a part of the characters and their journey, the soundtrack fits really well and is just as great as it needed to be.
Basically? If you loved the book, you have to see the movie. If you haven't read the book (or for some incomprehensible reason, don't want to) but like really good movies, then you have to see If I Stay.
I really hope they will adapt Where She Went, as well. (Shh, don't tell but I liked that book even more than If I Stay.)
Now hurry up and go enter my (US/Can only, sorry!) If I Stay Giveaway to win a copy of the book and the Blu-ray of the movie!
thank you to Fox for my copy to review - and to participate in #IfIStayIn
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