If I Stay

"The box office has extracted buckets of young adults’ tears this year, and is being made more powerful by the offering, like the emotion-absorbing ooze from Ghostbusters II. Well gird your tear ducts; it’s time for another round. Based on Gayle Forman’s best-selling book, this latest entry is anchored by a typically elegant performance from Chloë Grace Moretz (Carrie, Kick-Ass) as shy, cello-worshipping Mia, who finds herself trapped in an out-of-body limbo after a car accident leaves her in a coma."

"The overall execution is so pedestrian that it’s possible to feel more moved by the filmmakers’ good intentions than by the actual emotional content onscreen."

"Moretz is winning as Mia... But the film strains painfully to ingratiate itself: Hit-Girl would positively gag on its phoney hipster-speak, pop homilies and groovy parents."

"For a drama pretty much aimed at 12-year-old girls, it’s less superficial than you’d expect."

"A cleanly directed, credibly acted machine for the production of tears."

"It’s hard to care about the fate of characters who never seem particularly alive in the first place."

"It doesn't help that Cutler relies on a stable of formal clichés..."

"Too many false notes add up to a Nicholas Sparks-lite teen romance."