If I Stay

At a time when so many youngsters aspire to be rock stars and rappers, it’s refreshing to see a story about a girl who wants to be a cellist. Likewise, it’s admirable for a film aimed at teenagers to deal seriously with issues such as mortality and the grieving process.

Yet while both of those are true about If I Stay, a big-screen adaptation of the young-adult novel by Gayle Forman, the result is a manipulative tearjerker that feels more contrived than authentic and more heavy-handed than profound.

It’s a film in which the main character, Mia (Chloe Grace Moretz) spends much of her time in a coma. Since that doesn’t have much visual or narrative appeal, there are flashbacks, of course, to how she got there — namely, a car accident on a wintry night that sent the rest of her immediately family to the same hospital.

The premise assumes that Mia, through an out-of-body experience, can carefully consider life or death based on the circumstances around her, such as whether she can cope knowing that life with her free-spirited parents (Joshua Leonard and Mireille Enos) will never be the same.

Then there’s the opportunity for her to possibly fulfill a dream by attending Julliard as a cellist, following years of practice and a successful audition. But the accident happened before she heard back.

Perhaps most importantly, Mia is torn over her relationship with Adam (Jamie Blackley), a classmate and successful guitarist who seems only partially supportive of her own musical goals. How much does he really care about their future?

The intentions of first-time feature director R.J. Cutler (The September Issue) and screenwriter Shauna Cross (Whip It) might be pure, but the chronologically jumbled storyline expends considerable effort showcasing meet-cutes and other standard adolescent flirtations instead of creating genuine emotional resonance.

Fortunately, Moretz (Let Me In) helps to elevate the material from such melodramatic trappings with a performance that’s both sensitive and mature. Her performance brings depth and complexity to a film with a largely superficial romantic approach.

While Moretz continues to be a star on the rise, If I Stay is destined to be overlooked as it leaps aboard the teen-weepie bandwagon.

Rated PG-13, 106 minutes.