Midnight Sun

Midnight Sun is a pretty decent example of a genre I don't really gravitate toward - The teen romance tearjerker.  Sure, it's just as implausible as a lot of films just like it, but it has a sense of humor about itself, and it features a bright cast.  I particularly liked the female lead, Bella Thorne, a Disney Channel actress who shows a great amount of personality here.  Based on her performance, I can see her being successful in romantic comedies down the road.

Thorne plays Katie, a 17-year-old girl who suffers from a rare skin disease known as Xeroderma Pigmentosum, or XP.  The illness causes an extreme sensitivity to ultraviolet rays, meaning that in the most serious cases sufferers must completely avoid any exposure to the sun.  It's something that she's had to live with all her life.  Her ever-protective father (Rob Riggle, very good in a rare dramatic role) keeps Katie inside at all times under protective glass on the windows to block out the sun.  He does allow her to go out at night, though, where she usually plays her guitar down at the local train station, or hangs out with her only friend Morgan (Quinn Shephard).  These early moments create an easy chemistry with the audience.  While the father is protective, he's not overbearing, nor does he forbid Katie from doing anything a normal teen would do, just as long as it's at night.  I liked that the film allowed Katie, her father and Morgan to joke around, and act like individuals instead of characters stuck in a teen drama.

One night, while Katie is playing her music down at the train station, she has a run-in with Charlie (Patrick Schwarzenegger, son of Arnold), a boy whom she has always admired whenever she saw him skateboard by her house every day, but obviously has never had a chance to actually meet.  He's intrigued by her music, but she doesn't know how to act when she actually gets the chance to talk to him, and runs away, making up a lame excuse that her cat died and she has to attend its funeral.  Morgan sets it up so that the two meet up again, and they begin a friendship, which leads to a romance.  Katie doesn't tell Charlie about her disease, and makes up convoluted excuses as to why they can only meet at night.  She says it's because she wants Charlie to see her as a person, and not as a disease.  I say it's because the writer has to manipulate things so we can have the inevitable scene where Charlie will learn the truth, and feel hurt that she has kept it hidden from him. 

Regardless, their relationship soldiers on.  In a nice touch, Katie's father does not disapprove of them seeing each other, only that she is hiding her disease from Charlie.  They spend more and more time together, and he ultimately takes her on a train ride to Seattle so she can experience her first live music show, and so they can make PG-13 love afterward.  But alas, Katie's disease is getting worse, as evidenced by the fact that her hands are starting to suffer from uncontrolled tremors, and it becomes harder for her to play her guitar.  Katie puts on a brave face, and the audience prepares their Kleenexes.  And while the plot follows an all-too familiar road, the characters and performances still remain likable, and are even able to withstand the film's incredibly cheesy final moments.

Midnight Sun is based on a Japanese novel from over 10 years ago titled Taiyou no Uta (A Song to the Sun), which was already adapted into a successful movie over there, as well as a TV series and even a manga.  And while nothing that happens within the movie is remotely convincing, it is the performances and the occasional moments of humor in the script that makes it effective.  For a teen romance escape movie, this does just fine.  It's not going to blow up at the box office, but the young teen girls who do discover it will get to swoon and shed a tear or two.  Anyone who does not fall into this demographic will find it likable enough.  Thorne never once plays up the pathos in her character to unbearable levels, and while Schwarzenegger can be a bit stiff at times, he eventually became charming enough to win me over.  But it is Riggle as Katie's father who gets the best scene, when he breaks down as he wonders why he did so much to protect his daughter if he can't save her during the later stages of her disease.

Is this movie manipulative?  Oh my, yes.  But I would be lying if I didn't say it eventually worked on me.  And even if it is manipulative, at least the movie doesn't feel the need to throw a villain or a forced crisis into the mix.  It's a simple story of two kids in love who face tragedy together, and in this case, that's enough. 

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