Midnight Sun
2.5/4
Starring: Bella Thorne, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Rob Riggle, Quinn Shepard
Rated PG-13 for Some Teen Partying and Sensuality
"Midnight Sun" doesn't have a lot of ambition, and for a movie like this, that's fine. It's a standard order romantic tearjerker with some solid performances and an acceptable amount of chemistry. The only thing holding it back is that it relies too heavily on what Roger Ebert coined the "Idiot Plot" and some truly purple dialogue.
Katie (Thorne) is your average teenager. She's pretty, smart, and a talented singer/songwriter. Unfortunately, she has a terrible secret: Katie has xeroderma pigmentosum, or XP for short. Meaning that exposure to sunlight could be fatal for her. Under the watchful eye of her father (Riggle) and BFF Morgan (Shepard), she has lived long enough to graduate from high school, but she longs for normalcy. On one of her rare nights out of the house, she is seen playing by Charlie (Schwarzenegger), the boy she has watched skate by her house ever since she was little. Their first meeting is a disaster (she turns into an awkward, bumbling mess whose excuse to flee is to take care of her dead cat). Morgan intervenes and soon the two are inseparable. But the longer Katie waits to tell Charlie the truth, the more danger she's in.
"Midnight Sun" satisfies the two basic necessities of every romance: the leads are likable and there is a strong bond between them. Both Bella Thorne and Patrick Schwarzenegger (son of Ah-nuld) generate enough heat together for the audience to feel their connection. I'm not talking Rick and Ilsa here, but it's enough to get the job done. I suppose it's ironic that I've seen two veterans of the criminally underrated "Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse" in recent movies (Logan Miller was in "Love, Simon"), and that they both play against type. In the 2015 movie, Schwarzenegger gave a dead-on portrayal of the popular guy in high school that made your life hell. Here, he's a charmer. I expect good things from him in the future. Bella Thorne isn't quite as successful, but she more than holds her own.
A certain amount of corniness is to be expected with every love story like this. Even "Titanic" wasn't free of it. Anyone remember Jack's final speech or how Rose kept screaming his name for the final hour? But here, there are too many complications and too many times when the dialogue was silly I was trying to suppress smiles.
Romances are difficult to get right. Failed attempts litter the landscape (such as "Forever My Girl" from earlier this year). The problem, I think, is when a filmmaker doesn't have enough confidence in his actors to carry the film. The lovebirds are the key feature of any romance; as such, nine times out of ten the plot is irrelevant. Katie and Charlie are interesting enough that the movie doesn't need all the melodrama about a disease or whatnot. That director Scott Speer, who directed the formulaic but charming "Step Up Revolution" a few years ago, gets a little heavy handed doesn't help much. The film's best scenes are when the two are just hanging out and talking together. Sure, some of the things they do for each other stretch believability level, but that's okay I guess. I just wished that Speer had let them spend more time together than busying up the film with complications.
The bottom line is that if you're looking for a romantic tearjerker, you got one. But I couldn't help thinking that with just a little more TLC, it could have been so much more. Katie and Charlie deserved better.
Starring: Bella Thorne, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Rob Riggle, Quinn Shepard
Rated PG-13 for Some Teen Partying and Sensuality
"Midnight Sun" doesn't have a lot of ambition, and for a movie like this, that's fine. It's a standard order romantic tearjerker with some solid performances and an acceptable amount of chemistry. The only thing holding it back is that it relies too heavily on what Roger Ebert coined the "Idiot Plot" and some truly purple dialogue.
Katie (Thorne) is your average teenager. She's pretty, smart, and a talented singer/songwriter. Unfortunately, she has a terrible secret: Katie has xeroderma pigmentosum, or XP for short. Meaning that exposure to sunlight could be fatal for her. Under the watchful eye of her father (Riggle) and BFF Morgan (Shepard), she has lived long enough to graduate from high school, but she longs for normalcy. On one of her rare nights out of the house, she is seen playing by Charlie (Schwarzenegger), the boy she has watched skate by her house ever since she was little. Their first meeting is a disaster (she turns into an awkward, bumbling mess whose excuse to flee is to take care of her dead cat). Morgan intervenes and soon the two are inseparable. But the longer Katie waits to tell Charlie the truth, the more danger she's in.
"Midnight Sun" satisfies the two basic necessities of every romance: the leads are likable and there is a strong bond between them. Both Bella Thorne and Patrick Schwarzenegger (son of Ah-nuld) generate enough heat together for the audience to feel their connection. I'm not talking Rick and Ilsa here, but it's enough to get the job done. I suppose it's ironic that I've seen two veterans of the criminally underrated "Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse" in recent movies (Logan Miller was in "Love, Simon"), and that they both play against type. In the 2015 movie, Schwarzenegger gave a dead-on portrayal of the popular guy in high school that made your life hell. Here, he's a charmer. I expect good things from him in the future. Bella Thorne isn't quite as successful, but she more than holds her own.
A certain amount of corniness is to be expected with every love story like this. Even "Titanic" wasn't free of it. Anyone remember Jack's final speech or how Rose kept screaming his name for the final hour? But here, there are too many complications and too many times when the dialogue was silly I was trying to suppress smiles.
Romances are difficult to get right. Failed attempts litter the landscape (such as "Forever My Girl" from earlier this year). The problem, I think, is when a filmmaker doesn't have enough confidence in his actors to carry the film. The lovebirds are the key feature of any romance; as such, nine times out of ten the plot is irrelevant. Katie and Charlie are interesting enough that the movie doesn't need all the melodrama about a disease or whatnot. That director Scott Speer, who directed the formulaic but charming "Step Up Revolution" a few years ago, gets a little heavy handed doesn't help much. The film's best scenes are when the two are just hanging out and talking together. Sure, some of the things they do for each other stretch believability level, but that's okay I guess. I just wished that Speer had let them spend more time together than busying up the film with complications.
The bottom line is that if you're looking for a romantic tearjerker, you got one. But I couldn't help thinking that with just a little more TLC, it could have been so much more. Katie and Charlie deserved better.
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