Midnight Sun

Directed by Scott Speer, Midnight Sun details the romance that ensues between a young woman (Bella Thorne’s Katie Price) afflicted with a severe sensitivity to sunlight and a former jock (Patrick Schwarzenegger’s Charlie Reed) struggling to find his place after a potentially career-ending injury. Filmmaker Speer, working from Eric Kirsten’s screenplay, delivers a mostly forgettable drama that doesn’t contain much in the way of standout, engrossing elements, as the picture, which feels a little long even at just 91 minutes, suffers from a fairly generic feel that’s compounded by the leads’ competent yet entirely bland efforts – with the resulting lack of chemistry between the two paving the way for a midsection riddled with lulls and padded-out stretches. (Only Rob Riggle, cast as Katie’s sympathetic father, manages to make much of a positive impact, and it’s clear, in the end, that the movie’s few compelling sequences revolve around his charming character.) And although the film never becomes as disastrously uninvolving as one might’ve anticipated, Midnight Sun is simply (and predominantly) unable to become the engaging, heart-wrenching tearjerker that Speer has quite obviously intended – which is a shame, certainly, given that that the movie admittedly does possess a watchable and somewhat agreeable vibe (ie the whole thing is never awful, ultimately).

** out of ****

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