What would you do if you were trapped between life and death? As most people know, this is what happens to Mia Hall when her family gets into a car accident on an icy Oregon road. If I Stay follows Mia as she follows herself to the hospital with the rest of her family. Throughout the book and movie, there are flashbacks to Mia’s life with her family, cello, and boyfriend Adam.

While the book focuses more on her relationship with her family, the movie centers more around her relationship with Adam. Both the book and the movie start out giving background on her family in between flipping to the present in which they are having a snow day and are planning to visit family. On the way there, a truck driver loses control on the road, and there is a crash. Mia wakes up and starts to walk around, eventually seeing herself on the ground and realizes that she is watching the aftermath of the car crash. Following herself to the hospital, she sees that her mother has died, and her brother and father are in surgery at the same time as she is. Mia’s entire family and a big group of friends are in the waiting room. Until this point, the movie follows closely with the book, but now switches to focusing more on Adam. Mia’s best friend Kim brings him from his show in Portland. After this, most of the flashbacks through Mia’s memory focus on Adam and their relationship. As the day goes on, there is a moment between Mia and her grandfather, where he tells her that if she would find it too hard to stay, she can go. This is one of the only pieces of her family relationship, besides her Julliard audition, past a certain point in the movie.

In the next line of flashbacks, Mia focuses on how she and Adam start fighting when he begins touring more. Eventually, especially after Mia tells Adam about her audition, the time that he has with Mia becomes strained. One of the really good parts of the second half of the movie is when they are having a bonfire, and Adam and her parents convince her to play her cello with them. As she says in the narration, this is the first time that Mia feels like part of her family. This is an important part of the movie because it is one of the last scenes before most of the time is spent in the hospital with Mia and Adam. One of the most important things that the movie leaves out is the fact that Adam tells Mia he would leave if it were too painful for her, on the condition that she lives. Instead, he just talks to her by her bedside and asks her to not make him write a song. At the beginning of the last scene in the movie, Adam puts headphones over Mia’s ears and plays her one of her favorite classical pieces. This song plays over the loudspeaker to Mia and plays a big part in her decision. Will she stay?

Picture Credit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355630/