Teen Romance Midnight Sun is the latest in a crowded genre of Films, but does it stand out amongst the crowd? The unfortunate thing for Director Scott Speer and stars Bella Thorne and Patrick Schwarzenegger is that despite highlighting the Film with good performances, we just may have seen these plot points too often. Girl is sick. Girl meets boy. Girl defies parents. Life-altering accident occurs, and you know the rest.
The Movie focuses on Katie (Bella Thorne) who she suffers from a disease known as Xeroderma pigmentosum, abbreviated as XP, which essentially means if she is exposed to sunlight she can develop skin cancer, have brain failure, and essentially die. For her entire life she has been seen as an outcast as she was never able to leave the house, but as a young child, Morgan (Quinn Shephard) didn’t care that she had XP and they became friends. Fast-forward to present day and after years of admiring Charlie (Patrick Schwarzenegger) from her window, Katie runs into him fatefully at the train station she frequents to play her music. Startled by Charlie confronting her, she runs off, leaves her notebook, and then starts the unlikeliest of romances.
Thorne and Schwarzenegger have an undeniable chemistry between them and this elevates the entire Film despite its common pedigree. Jack, played by Rob Riggle, who is Katie’s father in the Movie, is great bringing some much needed light to the darker moments of the Film.
The main issues with Midnight Sun though lie within its Script and execution. Forgivable are the cheesy one-liners but unforgivable is its predictability. There is no shocking twist, the ending can be seen a mile away, even though the Film may tug on the heartstrings.
eOne Films release MIDNIGHT SUN Friday, March 23, 2018.
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