Mia (Chloë Grace Moretz) and Adam (Jamie Blackley). All photos courtesy of Doane Gregory.

If any film adaptation of a young adult novel cries out for an omnipresent voiceover, it’s If I Stay. Though some of the smart, droll banter from Gayle Forman’s best seller (Dutton, 2009) has been lifted from the page onto the screen, the voice of the protagonist, classical music geek Mia (Chloë Grace Moretz), comes off as taciturn and a bit sullen, with her sarcasm toned-down and minus her razor-sharp observations, such as in Moretz's prior performances in Kick-Ass and its sequel—and even her guest stint on 30 Rock. She also becomes like the young women Mia derides in the book—the ones who put their boyfriends first and who say “we” instead of “I.” Her romance with older rocker Adam overwhelmingly takes up most the screen time, to the neglect of all else, though the setup is more dramatic than this case of first love. The storyline remains an attention grabber, filmed in a wintry, overcast Vancouver doubling for Portland, Oregon. Taking advantage of a snow day, Mia takes to the road with her family—her hipster rocker parents and little brother—for a snowboarding trip, when their car collides with a truck. Her mother is instantly killed and the others have been gravely injured. In a slightly supernatural twist, Mia has an out-of-body experience. Unscathed, she observes the rescuers trying to save her and her family, though no one can see or feel her—it’s not quite Ghost; Mia can’t walk through walls. Her corporeal body lies comatose and is whisked off to a hospital, and the spectral teen hops into the ambulance with her body. In the operating room, a nurse whispers in the injured Mia’s ear that it’s up to her if she wants to continue living (“You control this whole thing”), cueing the flashbacks of her life pre-accident and especially her on-and off-again relationship with Adam. The plot unfolds like a remix tape that could be labeled “My So-Called Wonderful Life.”

Adam is played by Jamie Blackley.

Tall, lean, and speaking in a monotone, Adam (Jamie Blackley) is the perfect boyfriend—maybe too much so. He makes the first move, asking out the jeans-and-sweater cellist Mia, who loves Beethoven, not Bieber, and attempts to understand classical music. He doesn’t cheat, and he fluently “rock-talks” (as Forman calls it) with Mia’s folks. He’s also  a bit bland. Overall, the life-or-death urgency is underpowered, when a few jolts are needed: the car accident is also underplayed, taking place off screen and not depicted nearly as graphically as in the book. Forman’s Mia memorably describes the hospital cafeteria and vividly paints a picture of her angel-loving, eccentric grandmother. On screen, the hospital setting is antiseptic and most of the supporting characters are nondescript. Readers get to know Mia’s world; for viewers, it’s all about Mia and Adam. Forman’s first-person prose flows over the course of 24 hours, but the film stops and starts, with the scenes between Mia and Adam dragging the pace. The actors, though earnest, give off low-flying sparks. After they have a precipitous falling out, Mia describes the days afterward as “brutal.” “Listless” might be more fitting. Through no fault of Moretz’s performance, Mia’s priorities come off a little skewed. In the source material, Mia has empathy even for the driver who causes the fatal collision; there’s no such reflection here. Viewers could be forgiven if they have forgotten that both of her parents have perished. In some ways, so has the movie. Inadvertently, Mia comes off as self-centered as the film builds to answering the questions: Has she been accepted at Julliard? Will she move to New York City, with or without Adam? One could say, she’s dying to know—but the audience is probably less so as the film gently treads to the dried-eyed conclusion. If I Stay opens in theaters on Friday, August 22. Directed by R. J. Cutler Rated PG-13 106 min.