Midnight Sun is teen romance film catered to a young female demographic, which I don’t belong to, but that’s never stopped me from finding some value in stories that are otherwise relentlessly mocked by the culture at large despite collectively giving male fantasies a pass for mostly being “dumb fun.” Like with any genre, there’s a way to do it well.
While it is to a certain degree true that the film, written by Eric Kirsten and directed Scott Speer, takes a lot cues from films like A Walk to Remember, or more recently The Fault in Our Stars, the film is actually a remake of a 2006 Japanese film starring a famous pop artist, Yui, and is seemingly (according to a quick Wikipedia scan) fairly faithful to the story of the original film.
The film is about Katie Price (Bella Thorne), who has a very rare skin disease, Xeroderma pigmentosum, which in basic terms means she has to avoid sunlight at all costs. So, she ends up spending most of her time in her home with her dad, Jack (Rob Riggle), and her best friend, Morgan (Quinn Shephard), who visits quite often. But all changes, when she encounters a longtime crush, Charlie (Patrick Schwarzenegger), while performing with her guitar at the train station late at night.
It’s a solid enough setup, and pieces are all in place, but the biggest problem seems to be the the strange little inconsistencies, contrived plot developments, and a sheer lack of personality. The story beats in place are often achieved through ways that seem like the easy way out, or one that will provide the least amount of challenge to its filmmakers, its characters, and its audience. It’s hard not to be reminded of similar moments from other (better) films like these, ones where the characters have more to them than whatever is on the surface, and ones where the story hits you in ways you don’t expect, even if you see them coming.
Bella Thorne is an actress I’ve seen here and there, more often than not, playing characters who are the sort of bitchy, mean girl types, while here, she’s mostly just a “generically nice” girl. She’s clearly putting a lot of effort, and when she has to play witty, or awkward, things kind of fall into place and actually work. But that effort is very obvious, and I’ve seen her do far better. Either way, she acts circles around Patrick Schwarzenegger, who is also nothing but a “generically nice” guy. It’s his first film as a co-lead (he’s only done a handful of films with mostly very small, supporting roles), so my instincts tell me to be more lenient, especially given the material he has to work with here, but it becomes hard to root for a couple in a romance film when one side can’t be described with a single adjective aside from very, very pretty. He has the look, but not much else, at least not here.
Quinn Shephard and Rob Riggle are probably the only ones who manage to bring the movie to life whenever they pop up on the screen. Quinn is very lively, has most of the film’s humor, and she is able to sell a fairly underdeveloped character arc through sheer force of will. I wish there was more for her to do, but I enjoyed what little I had. As far as Rob Riggle is concerned, he actually had the one moment in the entire film that brought me to tears, and I don’t mean like one tear slowly going down my face, this was two notches away from being a full blown ugly cry (full disclosure, I am a very easy crier). But aside from that I liked how supportive his character was, how light and fun he was, and there was never a moment where it didn’t seem like he cared deeply for his daughter. It’s nice to see this side of him as a performer.
So, if a tearjerker does its job in making you cry, does that negate any other faults it might have. I don’t think so, but it does make me think about why a certain sequence works despite not much else coming together. The sequence with Rob Riggle is one of the very few moments that touch on something that is very heartbreaking, but in an honest and subtle way. I don’t recall any sappy music blasting over the speakers, or any other cheap moves. It was just Rob Riggle talking to a doctor, expressing his feelings in a way that I found very moving, truthful, and touching. I believe that’s just enough to not completely write-off Midnight Sun. There are definitely better films just like this, but I didn’t have a bad time watching it, and I think for its audience, it gets the job done.