“The stories always end when the two people finally have their romantic kiss. The happily ever after is just assumed.” Mia, the main character of the book, If I Stay, says this. I’m not going to share things about the book. I’m going to tell you about the movie. One of the most important parts of a movie are the actors.

The actors you choose need to portray a character and send a message to the audience. I thought the actors chosen for this movie were perfect. Chloë Grace Moretz portrays the character named Mia. Mia is in high school and is obsessed with playing her cello. Chloë did a great job showing Mia’s shyness and other qualities. Adam, Jamie Blackley, is a lead vocalist and guitarist in a punk rock band. Actors should have some sort of chemistry if they date in a movie, Chloë and Jamie did, they made it look real. Choosing the actors in a movie is just as important as the setting.

The important places of the movie were at great locations.  The most important settings were the hospital, the crash site, and Mia’s house. A key location was the hospital where many of the scenes took place. The design of the hospital looked like how I imagined it as I read the book. Like the little details such as the glass doors for the critical care unit that separated Adam from Mia. Another key location was the crash site, were only a few scenes look place. Even though it was different from the book, the same message was implied on screen. Between the snow covered ground and the Beethoven symphony playing in the background, it also captured exactly what I had read. Mia’s house was another spot where the movie filmed a large number of scenes. They were all from flashbacks when Mia was with Adam and her family. This setting helped portray some of Mia’s favorite memories, including barbeques and family gatherings. Throughout the movie she has flashbacks to this setting, which are very important to the plot.

Almost all of the movie is flashbacks Mia is having. These flashbacks are helping  her decide her fate. I thought that the accuracy of what happened in these flashbacks in the movie and what they were in the book were extremely similar. For instance, in the book Mia is freaking out about what to wear on their first date. She can’t decide what’s right to wear on a first date. In the movie it shows exactly what happened in that part perfectly. In the flashbacks there are some small changes. Like when Adam takes out the bee stinger in Mia’s hand. In the movie its a little different from the book. Where Mia’s dad is playing basketball with Adam and Adam gets stung and her dad takes it out. Overall the flashbacks were quite similar,  besides small details.

The most important parts of a movie are the combination of actors and drawing the viewer into the movie with a clear visual setting. To summarize I talked about the importance of good actors, well displayed settings, and how the flashbacks in the movie were interpreted. Overall I think the creators of this movie did a wonderful job visualizing the story on the big screen.