"if i stay" by Gayle Forman directed by R.J. Cutler

Neph131

Research LH

Mr. Robinson

Period 2

Wednesday, May 13th, 2015

"Her reason to stay"

         In the movie “if i stay” directed by R. J. Cutler based on the book “if i stay” by Gayle Forman, a great use of strength, love, sacrifices and obstacles demonstrate the rewarding consequences of fighting for what you believe for.

The movie begins with Mia Hall, a young cellist and the narrator, eating breakfast with her family before she heads to school. After the radiocaster announces that there’s no school due to excessive amount of snow everywhere, her family decides to go visit Mia’s grandparents. Mia’s family get in a car accident due to a quick distraction. Mia wakes up to find her family’s now blazed car, flipped over and the medics trying to get the bodies out. She soon realizes that her spirit is the one awake and not her actual body, when she speaks to the medics and they don’t respond because of their inability to see and hear her. She then hops in the ambulance to the hospital. Mia wanders around the hospital to see if she can find out what happened to her mom, dad and little brother, Teddy. As she’s about to be operated on, a sympathetic nurse tells Mia that it is up to her whether or not she wants to stay. Which is where the themes of strength and fighting start to develop.

           Later, the audience ascertains that Mia’s mom was killed in the accident, her dad died on the operating room table, her brother is in critical condition, and she has a best friend friend, Kim, and a boyfriend, Adam. There are multiple time shifts throughout the movie. In one of the first flashbacks, the audience learns about Adam and more about Mia. Adam is the school’s most popular and attractive guy. He’s on his own, but neither Mia nor the audience finds out until later in the movie. He has his own band and asks Kim about Mia after he had watched her played the cello in the school’s practice room. Adam then asks Mia out on a date to a cello recital, where they show mutual affection towards one another. Unlike Mia, Adam plays rock and roll. Judging him, he comes off as a bad boy. However, it doesn’t stop Mia from attending his concerts and falling for him. Obstacle is portrayed when Adam has to leave because he had be signed by a record label. While Mia continues to hope that he’ll be back in town soon, Adam’s band is growing bigger and he has less and less time to spend with her. Additionally, Mia gets an audition to Juilliard. It takes a while for Mia to tell Adam about her audition and when she does he becomes upset and leaves for a week-long gig.

        Mia thinks about all the wonderful times she had with Adam and Kim, and the tough ones when he was away. She later finds out that Teddy has died from an epidural hematoma. While in her out-of-body experience, she sees her grandpa talk to her, revealing that her father gave up being in a band because he wanted to give her a better life and be a better father. He also, tearfully, gives Mia permission to move on from this life if she wants, which influences Mia to decide that she wants to die so that she can join her family on the other side. Then, the story flashes back to Mia at her audition for Juilliard, where she plays the best she has ever played, leading her to think that if accepted she will go. After a reconciliation with Adam, they talk about the huge possibility of her going to Juilliard, which ultimately leads to them breaking up and going their separate ways. Adam comes back with a birthday gift and asks Mia to move in with him as in if she decides to go to Juilliard, then he’ll go with her. The story goes back to present time where Adam tries to break in to see Mia with Kim's help.

        After a while, Mia appears stable enough to receive more visitors, meaning Adam and Kim. Mia sees the light and is about to let go once she finds out that she had lost her entire family, and walks toward it, only to be interrupted by her favorite piece from the first recital she attended with Adam, playing throughout the hospital. She follows the sound which leads to her hospital room, where she sees Adam has placed a pair of headphones in her ears playing music from his phone. Mia had to decide whether to stay in this life or move on to the afterlife. She had to think about what would happen if she stayed. Just before that, she watched her best friend talk to her, telling her that she has a family: Adam, Kim, Willow, a close family friend, and her grandparents.

            Adam and Mia are complete opposites, yet they compliment each other. Adam was Mia’s

strength and her true love. Mia was Adam’s strong, beautiful and talented princess from a fairytale.

She experienced things that she never did before with him, such as going to rock and roll concerts

and parties. He was the reason why she pulled through. She was his reason for always coming back.

From that moment that the nurse told Mia that the choice was up to her, she had to think about the

reason why she had to fight, her family. After finding out that she had lost them, she only had Kim

and Adam. Recalling her times with him are the main reasons why she decided to stay instead of

leaving. She had another family waiting for her. There were times while she was a spirit wandering

around, where she could have let go, but Adam influenced her to hold on tighter.