“If I Stay” starts out with a shot of a car driving through beautiful and snowy woods. Unfortunately, this seemed to be the high point of the movie, as I spent the next 105 minutes trying not to laugh hysterically. The thought “Should I stay?” was echoed throughout the movie, and was also a thought that filled my head when I was wondering whether or not I should leave the theater.

The movie is centered around 17-year-old Mia Hall (Chloë Grace Moretz). Mia is an aspiring cellist who has gone through her life feeling at odds with her former rock star parents (Josuha Leonard and Mireille Enos) and her younger brother, Teddy (Jakob Davies). After a car crash, Mia falls into a coma, bringing on a series of flashbacks that delve into Mia’s relationship with her family, best friend Kim (Liana Liberato), and ex-boyfriend Adam (Jamie Blackley).

Watching Moretz interact with her on-screen family was like watching families that I know interact with one another. The dynamics were believable, and their actions as a family were reminiscent of ones I see in my own home every day. Mia’s scenes with her grandfather (Stacy Keach) were the most touching scenes in the movie. Unfortunately, Mia’s family seems to become irrelevant during the last half hour of the movie, and the majority of the movie is spent on Mia’s relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Adam Wilde, the lead singer of a popular band. This would be fine, if Moretz and Blackley had any chemistry. Except they don’t. Watching the two interact on-screen was uncomfortable and awkward, which was amplified by the fact that every romantic cliché in the book seemed to have been thrown into the movie.

I’m not quite sure what purpose the characters of Kim or Nurse Ramirez (Aisha Hinds) served, as the two were barely in the movie and seemed like a distraction from scenes with Mia’s family or Adam. The two were overly-scripted and unnatural, and Moretz and Liberato lacked the chemistry that best friends have. As for Nurse Ramirez: House called. He wants his character back.

While Moretz outshone her fellow actors, her performance was still inconsistent and seemed to fluctuate between incredible and poor. You can tell that she tried- in fact, you can tell that everyone tried, because the movie is ripe with overacting and melodrama. The overdramatic acting did its job, though- I was certainly shedding tears during the film’s more serious moments, though they were tears of suppressed laughter and not of sadness. When the film’s intentionally funny moments fall flat, you have to find humor somewhere, right?

One positive aspect of the movie was the scenery. Shot in Vancouver, Canada, the film is peppered with shots of snowy forests, overgrown front yards, and lakeside houses, making most of the scenes truly beautiful. Another positive aspect was the music, composed by Heitor Pereira. Though it was stereotypically indie, it fit the movie surprisingly well and was enjoyable.

Despite this, the music and scenery could not save the movie. “If I Stay” tried its best, but fell flat. It’s a predictable movie filled with clichés and stereotypes. Skip the movie and watch the trailer instead if you are interested in finding out what happens. Spend the $7 that you would have spent on your ticket on something else. You’ll be glad that you did.