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Between A Rocker and a Hard Place

"If I Stay" is like a pre-packaged cupcake - you know it's not good for you, but you reach for it anyway, only to wonder afterward why you bothered. There are enough clichés and manipulations in this movie to test a monk's patience.

Let's start with the tagline: "Live for Love." Spoiler alert! Not hard to figure out what happens when that's the movie's motto. But it's a young-adult picture and there is a love story involved so naturally that will be the main point. The dialogue is really a strain with lines such as, "falling in love with Adam was like learning to fly." Is playing the cello also like sharing a heartbeat with it? That line's in there too.

The story is about Mia (Chloë Grace Moretz), a teenage introverted cello player with cool bohemian parents and a smart, trash-talking best friend (Liana Liberato). She is shy and uncomfortable but comes to life through music and Adam (Jamie Blackley), a slightly older guy with good hair and a rock band. He falls for her as he watches her play music because, hey, he plays music too. She has a poster of Yo-Yo Ma in her locker and he mistakes it for street slang like Yo Mamma. Groan.

Her love affair is going well but then a terrible car accident happens, placing her into a comatose state and a sort of "Sixth Sense" limbo. A nurse tells her, "whatever fight you've got in you, you've got to pull it out now." She drifts around out of her body, trying to decide whether to live or die, as she hears bad news about her family. If she pulls through, she may have an empty house, but if she dies, she may never find out if she got into Julliard or see what happens with Adam. There is a perfect Clash song that could have played here but that's yet another missed opportunity.

A schmaltzy movie about big decisions and love should be so much better than "If I Stay." Especially with a talent like Chloe, who is a solid young actress and far more interesting than just the leading teen lady she is playing. Liberato continues to have a strong screen presence and could be a big star if given the chance (just see "Trust"). There's an emotional void in R.J. Cutler's movie that wants so badly to make us all scream with sobs. It doesn't, because it tries too hard, and it's too damn hokey.

"If I Stay" is an exercise in phoniness and laziness. "Fault In Our Stars" isn't perfect but in the battle of young-adult female melodramas released this year, that one gets the KO.