Movie Review: If I Stay

Posted May 4, 2015 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

If_I_Stay_posterRowena’s review of If I Stay.

Mia Hall thought the hardest decision she would ever face would be whether to pursue her musical dreams at Juilliard or follow a different path to be with the love of her life, Adam. But what should have been a carefree family drive changes everything in an instant, and now her own life hangs in the balance. Caught between life and death for one revealing day, Mia has only one decision left, which will not only decide her future but her ultimate fate.

It’s been so long since I read this book that I thought seeing the movie was going to be a new experience but that’s not what happened. As soon as the movie started, the book came back to me.

Mia Hall is a gifted musician with hippie parents and a pretty great little brother. She’s close with her family even though she’s completely different from them. Her parents are free spirits who are spontaneous, outwardly happy and into rock music but Mia is more reserved and into classical musical and playing her cello. She’s a deep thinker and if there was a black sheep in her family, she’d be it. Her family is too close and they love each other too much for black sheeps though. I thought her parents were lovely people and Teddy was a complete delight.

When Mia meets Adam, the popular boy from school who is into rock music (just like her parents), she wasn’t expecting the relationship that would blossom between them. She wasn’t expecting to be so intensely in love with him at such a young age but she was. Adam and Mia were dynamite together and the love that they had for each other was great to witness on the big screen. Their love was pure and lovely and complicated as time pulls them apart. Adam graduates from high school (he’s a year ahead of Mia) and his band starts playing gigs all over the place while Mia is left behind, still in school, trying to figure out what she’s going to do after she graduates.

Adam and Mia made plans for after graduation but Mia starts hoping for different things. Things that weren’t part of the plans she made with Adam and when Adam finds out, he’s salty as shit and they fight and then drift…and even though they still love each other, there’s still hurt feelings and unsure thoughts and when Mia’s entire family (her included) is in a fatal car accident, Mia who is hovering between the after life and coming back to Earth has some decisions to make.

Should she go or should she stay?

This whole movie is a cry-fest. The minute that the accident happens on the big screen, my heart was crying all over the place. Mia is trying to deal with the fact that she’s losing her family fast and trying to figure out what kind of life she’d be staying for and holy cow, the emotions game in this movie was too strong.

I liked the casting of the characters in this movie. From Mia to Adam (who wasn’t my first choice but he totally grew on me as I watched the movie – by the end, I LOVED him!) to Mia’s family, her grandparents, Adam’s band mates and Mia’s best friend. I loved everyone.

There were parts of the movie that dragged a bit in the middle, some parts of Adam and Mia’s relationship that I felt weren’t needed but in the end, I still enjoyed the movie heaps that I bought the DVD the day that it came out. I thought it was a great chick flick and fans of the book will enjoy this one. I know I did.

Grade: 4 out of 5

This movie is available from MGM Studios. I purchased my own ticket and bought the DVD too.


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