Midnight Sun: Film Review

Following the success of The Fault in our Stars, we have Midnight Sun, another story about a sick teenager who falls in love. You know how it’s going to end from the outset, but it doesn’t make it any less upsetting when you get there.

Bella Thorne stars as Katie Price (yep, made me chuckle every time) a girl who suffers from Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP) meaning the sunlight can kill her, so she spends her days locked away in her home with its special windows and with only her dad (Rob Riggle) and friend Morgan (Quinn Shephard) for company. One night she goes out busking and catches the eye of Charlie (Patrick Schwarzenegger) someone she has admired from afar for years and romance blossoms, yada yada… you know where it goes from here.

Midnight Sun is an absolute cheese-fest. It works hard to make you love Katie and Charlie as a couple and be devastated when the inevitable happens. I could see it happening, it lays it on really thick, with some lines so cringeworthy that I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. That being said, I fell for it completely and I almost felt embarrassed that such obvious sentimental tactics were working on me. Damn, I had a good cry!

I didn’t rate Thorne much as an actress before and I’m still not convinced for the most part but in the really emotional, heavy scenes later on she was amazing and really made me feel things. She was charming, captivating and had personality. Her relationship with Charlie is supposed to be the focal point but I preferred her relationship with her dad and the prospect of him losing her was the most moving.

This could be because the father-daughter relationship is written better or because Schwarzenegger is a pretty wooden actor. I didn’t believe him much at all. He looks great and his casting, along with Thorne, will definitely bring the target crowd in, but I think it would have been even more effective with somebody else, somebody who had the emotional depth, as Charlie. I mostly know Riggle from comedies so it was really nice to see him go dramatic here and he nailed his emotional scenes and I loved his chemistry with Thorne. I also want to give a shout-out to Shephard, who didn’t recognise but absolutely loved.

Midnight Sun has an awful script in many places and it tries to hammer the sadness home a bit too much but it is perfect viewing for girls who want a tearjerker to watch at home. Despite some of the dialogue, some of the acting by Schwarzenegger and the utter cheesiness of it all, I was seriously moved by it and I sobbed quite hard. Tissues are advised (if you’re a lame ass like me!)

In cinemas from Friday 30th March