DiNovi Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), New Line Cinema,
Chloë Grace Moretz, Mireille Enos, Joshua Leonard, Stacy Keach, Jamie Blackley
Mia Hall (Chloe Grace Moretz) is a young woman who has a tremendous talent for the cello. She dreams of attending Julliard, but fears she’s just not good enough. Her family is composed of rock and roll fans, but Mia feels like a stranger. She meets an up and coming rock star Adam (Jamie Blackley) and sparks fly, but a life changing accident finds Mia in a coma, and she faces the daunting decision of whether to stay or whether to go on to a seemingly better life, as a loving nurse whispers into her ear that the choice is hers.
This is not an overwhelmingly religious film. In fact, there is no preaching of any kind, nor is there a specific mention of any type of religion. But the movie does assume there is some kind of afterlife, and the mysterious out of body experience she faces is handled as if it’s absolutely normal. I’ve seen Chloe Grace in a number of films lately, but this is by far her best performance to date. She is wonderful in this film, and plays it perfectly. She handles the emotions of the scene with a wisdom seldom seen in someone so young, and the technical skills in playing the cello are in place as she looks as if she really is a master at the instrument. The parents are also excellent, as are the friends and extended family. But Jamie Blackley pulls of the “struggling to grow up” boyfriend with all the grace and stupidity of a true teen. His performance is really well. I struggled hard with whether to give this film 4.5 or 5.0, and I had a really hard time not giving it a 5.0. But this is an extremely emotional film, and though the theater was fully packed, it was silent at the abrupt ending finding a lot of wet eyes in the house. In fact, in L.A. it’s usually a rush to get out of the theater before the first words of the ridiculously long trailer comes up. But in this case, the theater silently sat for a long time after the film was over. It was easy to see everyone was touched. Yes this is mostly a “click flick” for sure, but I don’t think guys will be disappointed with taking the lady out for a movie she wants to see, mostly because of the excellent soundtrack. Between classical music of top quality, there’s a lot of rock as well, and it’s a perfect mix of the things going on in Mia’s life. I can’t say anything but good things about this movie, and I highly recommend it as a worthwhile experience, but I fell back to 4.5 on this one as I don’t want to be called too sappy, so I chickened out. Call it a 4.74 if you wish, it’s a darn good little film.
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