'Midnight Sun' offers a familiar, but somewhat grounded coming-of-age story

Midnight Sun
3 out of 5 Stars
Director: Scott Speer
Writer: Eric Kirsten, Kenji Bando (based on "Taiyô no uta")
Starring: Bella Thorne, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Rob Riggle
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rated: PG-13 for some teen partying and sensuality.

Synopsis: Katie, a 17-year-old girl, has a rare skin disease that makes her unable to go out in sunlight. Longing for a normal life, Katie spends her days sleeping and her nights playing guitar. When Charlie, her neighbor and life-long crush, stumbles upon one of her late-night performances, Katie is faced with new insecurities as the romance she has always dreamed of is suddenly within reach.

Review: Growing up in the 80s, I watched my share of coming-of-age films. “Pretty in Pink” was something of a blueprint for me early on. Even as an adult I’ve come across films like “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” or even last year’s “It” that have made their way on to my list of all-time favorite films. Yes, there have been many terrible coming-of-age films, but I still try to approach the sub-genre with a sense of optimism.

“Midnight Sun” is fairly derivative as it pulls together familiar genre elements to tell this story of a maiden locked away in a tower desperately waiting for her prince to come and rescue her. In this film, the tower is less a prison, more of a necessary precaution, but the desire to escape and live something that resembles a normal life remains.

A normal life would require a medical miracle and while there are plenty of deus ex machina moments in coming-of-age dramas, this film doesn’t take that route. There is of course a sense of fantasy the dominates the film, but it is also grounded in the sense that it is about a real, albeit rare, condition. It is somewhat similar to what was done in “Everything Everything,” but “Midnight Sun” feels a little more honest. Just a little more.

The chemistry between Bella Thorne’s Katie and Patrick Schwarzenegger’s Charlie is believable, which is important. Rob Riggle stars as Katie’s father and he seems a little more cartoonish than the rest of the cast, but that’s almost to be expected. There are aspects of the ending that push the film further into the fantasy realm, but I can understand the motivation behind going the route.

“Midnight Sun” isn’t going to appeal to people who aren’t interested in traditional coming-of-age stories. Yes, it has one foot grounded in reality, but it is mostly a work of fantasy that appeases the target audience, but doesn’t reach far beyond it.