I initially watched first half of this movie during my plane trip home from business trip in KL few weeks ago when I used Malindo airline. As I mentioned last time, the plane was delayed for 2.5 hours, and due to this, I managed to watch 1 full movie which I already wrote last time (titled True Story) and also saw this one but not completed. This time, when I went back from my trip to Singapore last night using Batik Air, which was same group as Malindo (Lion Air group), I was fortunate that the movies in the inflight entertainment were exactly the same. So I immediately continued where I left off and managed to complete watching the full movie and can therefore provide my insights on the film.
Brief Story Line
Mia Hall (Chloë Grace Moretz - Kick Ass 1 & 2, Carrie etc) was a high school girl with very huge talent in playing cello. She had a wonderful family with very loving mother Kat (Mireille Enos - The Killing TV series, World War Z etc) and father Denny (Joshua Leonard - Higher Ground etc) plus a much younger brother named Teddy (Jakob Davies).
One day, due to the heavy snow, the roads were closed and school was put on holiday. So Denny who happened to be the school teacher and Kat (who called in sick to her office) planned to go visit Mia's grandparents. Mia was actually a bit reluctant as she was expecting a letter of acceptance from Juilliard, a very prestigious musical university that she tried to enroll, but decided to go with the whole family.
One day, due to the heavy snow, the roads were closed and school was put on holiday. So Denny who happened to be the school teacher and Kat (who called in sick to her office) planned to go visit Mia's grandparents. Mia was actually a bit reluctant as she was expecting a letter of acceptance from Juilliard, a very prestigious musical university that she tried to enroll, but decided to go with the whole family.
The story would then be told in flashback mode where Mia was shown to be the subject of attention by a fellow high school student who happened to be very popular as he had his own band. Adam (Jamie Blackley - The Fifth Estate), the boy who was 1 year senior than Mia was interested when he first saw Mia playing cello. He got Mia's name from her best friend Kim (Liana Liberato - The Best of Me). And after that, the relationship would grow stronger, despite the apparent difference of Adam the extrovert highly popular boy with Mia who was quite introvert and a little bit withdrawn.
When the story returned to the current time, it was shown the trip Mia's whole family were experiencing. They were in the car and enjoying the ride, until somehow they were involved in a heavy accident. This incident made Mia having an out of body experience where she could see her family car heavily damaged and she herself was in a coma, with her having no knowledge about her family's condition.
When her body was brought to the hospital, Mia was feeling very confused of what she was experiencing. Especially when she saw her grandfather (nicely played by Stacy Keach - The Bourne Legacy, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For etc) and grandmother all very very sad.
So what would happen to Mia? Could she return back to her body and wake up from her coma? What about her family's situation? Find them all in this interesting romantic teem drama movie.
End of Brief Story Line
I honestly chose this movie as it was the only decent movie that I had not watched on the plane. When I read the brief synopsis, I had no idea that the story would be told in the manner of 2 different time lines which were shown in the current time and the past times through flash backs. The out of body experience was certainly the thing that kept me going to watch it, as without this part, I would feel this is just another one of those cheesy teen romantic drama and I might lose interest after watching for probably 1/2 hour.
Like any other such genre, the focus of the story also revolved around the relationship between Mia and Adam and how they have to cope up with the possibility of separating due to their own passion towards music. In addition, the relationship between Mia and her family was also quite nice. But I can say that the most wonderful relationship was actually between Mia and her grandpa. I am very sure that if my wife watched this movie, she would be tearful watching the moment between them.
The out of body experience here was shown in a very simple way and there was no cool special effects required to portray those scenes. Which is why I believe the movie was able to maintain low budget. After looking at some information of the movie in the website, it did show that the movie was very profitable, earning >5 times than its budget. Not sure whether it's the appeal of the story which was adapted from the novel of same title written by R. J. Cutler who was director/producer of some highly acclaimed documentary such as The War Room, and also the producer of Nashville TV Series, or it's actually due to the main star was Chloë Grace Moretz who already started to gain popularity from her previous movies.
If you happen to like this kind of genre, with a bit of a twist on the out of body experience, then this one is definitely for you. You can also enjoy the cello playing and few songs played by Adam's band. Oh, there were also some very brief love making scene (but not the vulgar type) with lots of kissing between Mia and Adam. So perhaps not suitable for children to watch. But for adults, maybe can still enjoy the movie.
Anyway, this is a 2014 movie so you will not be able to look for it in the theaters now (in fact, I do not think this movie played in Indonesia). However, you definitely can watch it via online streaming, or DVD rental or if you happen to fly using Batik Air or Malindo Air, you can watch it as part of their inflight entertainment.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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