If I Stay Movie Review

I just watched the If I Stay movie on Netflix, so I thought I’d write a quick review about it and share some of my thoughts.

Here’s the trailer for the movie if you don’t know anything about it:

I read If I Stay a few years ago and I thought it was a pretty good book. It definitely made me cry. A lot. The movie was alright, but I only teared up a couple of times. I thought this was very disappointing considering how much I sobbed during the book. The actors just didn’t have as emotional an impact on me.

Chloë Grace Moretz has been in a couple of movies I’ve seen and she’s pretty good at acting, but I don’t think she’s very good with relationship drama. Jamie Blackley as Adam had the same problem. While the book is pretty angsty in the romance department as well, it just felt awkward when it was acted out on screen. Of course it didn’t always feel this way, but sometimes I just couldn’t help but cringe/laugh at the cheesiness.

I did love the parents. They were the perfect amount of crazy and outgoing that I remembered them being. However, I still didn’t feel that sad when the accident happened. Maybe it was because I already knew what was going to happen? I’m not sure.

This movie and book are all based on some heavy medical and musical scenes, so I was disappointed when the medical drama wasn’t acted out very well and the musical stuff… Ugh. You could totally tell that Chloe/Mia’s head had been Photoshopped or whatever onto a real cello player’s body. Her head was just ginormous and it was moving awkwardly. And then Adam’s band wasn’t how I pictured them. The songs didn’t play out like they had played out in my head. I’d pictured a more rock vibe, but I can’t remember if that’s how Gayle Foreman wrote the band to sound like.

All in all, the movie was cute, but there were a lot of problems I had with it that distracted me. I’d recommend watching it as long as you realize that it’s not going to be anything life-changing.