Blu-ray Review If I Stay Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

If I Stay Blu-ray Review

A sentimental and overlong look at the worth of one’s life in regards to one’s self, one’s friends, and one’s family, R.J. Cutler’s If I Stay brings a favorite young adult novel to the screen with the same kind of intensely emotional baggage that can turn off an audience or bring them to uncontrollable tears depending on the mood of the moment and how anxious one is to partake in a good cry. There are good performers here, and the movie is almost wall-to-wall music due to the interests of many of the film’s characters, but it’s a fairly long slog to get to the inevitable choice the movie’s protagonist spends the entire movie trying to make.

Studio: MGM

Distributed By: Fox

Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HDMA, Spanish 5.1 DD, French 5.1 DTS, Other

Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Other

Rating: PG-13

Run Time: 1 Hr. 46 Min.

Package Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Copy, UltraViolet

keep case in a slipcover

Disc Type: BD50 (dual layer)

Region: A

Release Date: 11/18/2014

MSRP: $39.99

The Production Rating: 3.5/5

After a horrific car accident takes away her father (Joshua Leonard), her mother (Mireille Enos), and her younger brother (Jakob Davies), cello prodigy Mia Hall (Chloë Grace Moretz) hovers between life and death having an out-of-body experience trying to decide if she wants to walk into the light or keep on fighting to come back from her injuries. She relives the last eighteen months of her life which had truly affected her after meeting the love of her life Adam (Jamie Blackley), front man for a rock band that’s starting to take off. With Mia herself in line for a scholarship at Julliard, there are serious decisions that must be made if she and Adam are to stay together, and her emotions are clouded by the deaths of her loved ones and the outpouring of love from her remaining family and friends as she lies in a coma.The screenplay by Shauna Cross juxtaposes the events in the last year and a half of Mia’s life mixing the positives and the negatives out of conventional order but still offering a full picture of the young girl blossoming with the advent of her first love. The drama, however, occasionally feels artificial (the young lovers arguing about when news gets told) and the dialogue and the film's pacing are definitely occasionally clunky. What Cross and director R.J. Cutler get very right, on the other hand, is the loving, playful camaraderie of this family of musicians, the family scenes with the wise, doting parents offering some of the most pleasing and ingratiating shown on-screen in some time. Cutler also shows class in leaving the terrible car crash to our imaginations allowing the camera to waft above the mayhem below and allowing the sound effects to cover the tragedy as it happens. If one is not keen on music, this is definitely not the movie for you because Adam’s rock band rehearses and plays several numbers during the movie, and Mia performs several classical pieces on her cello (her stunning Julliard audition is worth the price of admission). One must admit the sight of Mia’s spirit racing around the hospital trying to find out about her family’s status is not the most expedient way this motif could have been handled, but there is no denying the emotional wallop that occurs as her remaining family and friends show up at the ICU to lend her support and attempt to convince her to keep fighting.Chloë Grace Moretz is very appealing as the uber-talented and sensitive Mia etching a very believable portrait of a genius musician feeling awkward around merely talented mortals and navigating the ever-shifting and always confusing levels of first love. Actual rock musician Jamie Blackley who sings his own vocals and plays his own guitar makes a believable boy friend for Moretz’s Mia though perhaps without that last bit of smooth ease before the camera that she has. Director Cutler has handled their love scenes with polite discretion though there’s no doubt this is not an unconsummated love affair. The adults in the cast are all aces. Stacy Keach as her grandfather scores heavily in all his scenes with Moretz and has discussions with her after her Julliard audition and at her hospital bedside that genuinely earn the tears they elicit. Joshua Leonard and Mireille Enos are both super cool parents offering the love and support that all teens want and need from their elders without too many embarrassing spectacles made in front of their friends. Liana Liberato is a sturdy best friend for Mia, and Gabrielle Cerys Haslett as the young Mia matches well with her older counterpart and convinces utterly with the cello fascination.

Video Rating: 4.5/5 3D Rating: NA

The film’s 2.40:1 theatrical aspect ratio is faithfully rendered in a 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Shot digitally on a rather small budget, the film generally looks quite beautiful (Vancouver substitutes for Portland) and detailed with excellent sharpness present. Color is natural and solid with believable skin tones throughout. Black levels might not always be at their inkiest, but contrast has been well and consistently maintained. The movie has been divided into 32 chapters.

Audio Rating: 4/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix is a good but not outstanding effort with the music offering the most wide-ranging aspect of the sound design though occasionally it’s relegated to only a front channel spread rather than dipping into the rear channels. Dialogue has been well recorded and has been placed in the center channel. The lack of wide-ranging sound effects sometimes betrays the film’s smaller budget, but the mix certainly gives most of the music the attention it deserves, both for the vocals and for Heitor Pereira’s background score.

Special Features Rating: 4/5

Audio Commentary: director R.J. Cutler and producer Alison Greenspan share an agreeable and informative commentary track fully demonstrating how much they love this material and their production.“I Never Wanted to Go” Music Montage (3:28, HD): clips from the movie are played against the soundtrack of this song used several times in the film.“Never Coming Down” Music Video (3:30, HD): another song from the film gets the music video treatment.Beyond the Page (14:27, HD): three brief behind-the-scenes featurettes with sound bites from stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Jamie Blackley, Stacy Keach, and Liana Liberato, director R.J. Cutler, producer Alison Greenspan, and original novelist Gayle Forman discussing the importance of music in the story, how the adaptation was achieved, and the out-of-body experience so central to the narrative.Deleted Scenes (4:17, HD): two deleted sequences may be viewed together or separately with optional commentary by director R.J. Cutler and producer Alison Greenspan.Music Commentary (49:34, HD): the eighteen rock and classical music selections interwoven throughout the film are commented on by director R.J. Cutler. Individual songs may also be chosen individually.Image Gallery: two dozen images may be stepped through by the viewer.Theatrical Trailer (2:31, HD)Promo Trailers (HD): The Fault in Our Stars, The Longest Week, The Best of Me.DVD/Digital Copy/Ultraviolet: disc and code sheet enclosed in the case.

Overall Rating: 4/5

If I Stay is an emotional roller coaster which late teens and young adults may find quite appealing. While parts of the movie work better than other sections, viewers willing to submit to its sometimes simple-minded manipulations may find themselves emotionally rewarded. The Blu-ray release features very nice video and audio quality.

Reviewed By: Matt Hough

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