Midnight Sun, Review: XPeriencing XP from Windows

It’s not about Norway or the North Pole, where the sun shines at midnight. Rather, it is about a girl who suffers from a disease in which exposure to the sun, even for a few seconds, can prove fatal. Midnight Sun comes from a lineage that is populated by names like Anand, Love Story, Ankhiyon Ke Jharaokhon Se, Kaash and Paa. Then, there were toned down variants like Meri Surat Teri Aankhen, Dosti, Children of a Lesser God, Koshish, Taare Zameen Par, and the latest, Hichki. Both varieties had lead actors suffering from disease/disability, but in the former, the disease proved fatal, while in the latter, the victims emerged winners. Needless to say, there were oodles of melodrama in all these movies, and Midnight Sun is no exception.

Katie Price, 17, lives with a life-threatening sensitivity to sunlight caused by the rare genetic condition, xeroderma pigmentosum. During the day, she must stay indoors, having only her father, Jack and her best friend, Morgan, to keep her company. Katie's world opens up after dark, when she ventures outside to play her guitar and sing at the train station to welcome passengers. The passengers take her to be a busker, and drop coins in appreciation. One night, she is noticed by her long-time crush, Charlie, whom she has secretly watched from her bedroom window, for 10 years. When he approaches her to establish a relationship, Katie panics and leaves suddenly, forgetting her notebook, which Charlie keeps.

He returns the next day, and gives it to Katie, when she shows up to retrieve it. He writes his number in it, and Katie eventually invites him to go with her to a party, hosted by Morgan's friend, Garver. However, the party does not go well as planned, so Charlie takes them to a safer party, before leaving with Katie to go to the docks. He explains to her how he got his injury that prevented him from getting a scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley (he got drunk and jumped off the roof into the pool, causing him to clip his shoulder, which meant no more swimming and no more scholarship) before kissing her, on one of the boats. After the party, they begin to embark on nightly summer excursions every day.

Their tagline says “Romantic tear-jerker”, and it is as true as can be. Midnight Sun is based on a 2006 Japanese film, with Eric Kirsten (The Lighthouse, The Uninvited Guest) doing the writing in this edition. It dwells largely on the ability and determination of true, platonic lovers to do each other big, selfless favours, in order to help each one reach a milestone, before one of them moves on to the other world. Katie is a musician with a high level of untapped musical talent, while Charley is a swimmer who is convinced that he has reached the end of his career. Some recurring pieces of dialogue are cute and adorable (“you could....or you could...”).

Also, quality bonding is built between father and daughter, daughter and friend, friend and admirer. Those are the few cherishable moments in the film. For the rest, it follows a predictable path. Katie offering an excuse of her cat’s death and funeral to avoid Charley is funny but far-fetched. In a major lapse, Katie is shown being rushed home to beat sunrise, her home being many miles away. Could they not find a hotel, hospital or any other place to spend the day, especially because the long ride and delay could be fatal for her, and is?

Scott Speer (Step-up, Spinback, Status Update) manages to mould Patrick Schwarzenegger into the strong, silent, vulnerable good-looker type, and looks to Archie, Betty and Veronica to create a mild love triangle. Thankfully, he does not develop it farther. Vancouver, where Midnight Sun was shot, offers him some eye-soothing locales. He also gets in some good performances along the way. But besides the acceptance of the inevitable by the three lead characters, and Katie’s attempts to get her widower father hooked before she dies, there is very little in terms of narrative novelty or deft directorial touches.

It’s a beaten format, and would have worked much better with newer nuances and innovative construction. Getting tear glands into active mode and having viewers fishing out tissues is only half the battle. As it is, the film reminds us of many Indian tear-jerkers, all of which milked disease and disability to evoke cathartic empathy. His version is a whole 28 mins. shorter than the original Japanese, and that’s sensible. Though the film does not drag noticeably, it has little to captivate you.

Annabella Avery "Bella" Thorne (Amityville: The Awakening, The Babysitter, Assassination Nation) as Katie Price has sharp features and an easy-flowing, wise-cracking persona.

Patrick Schwarzenegger (Grown-Ups 2, Dear Eleanor, Go North), the son of you know who, in his first major role for a big studio production as Charlie has a no action role, and an amiable, affable presence. Rob Riggle (Colonel Robert Allen Riggle, Jr.; How to be a Latin Lover, 12 Strong, Status Update) as Jack Price is the surprise packet. In almost all his scenes, he performs naturally.

Quinn Shephard (The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Windsor, Blame) as Morgan is cast in the role of the quintessential best friend, and does justice. Nicholas Coombe (shorts and TV) as Garver, Quinn’s admirer, is cute and sensitive. Tiera Skovbye (Summer of 84, Prodigals, One Small Indiscretion) as Zoe Carmichael, the Veronica in the story, who loves Charley, but Charley has only for Katie, has a deadly, sensuous screen image.

Music by Ethan Dorr, Morgan Dorr and Nate Walcott goes well with the film, and a couple of songs could get appreciable air-play. Rated PG13, Midnight Sun was initially scheduled to release on July 14, 2017, and comes to India on April 6, some nine months later.

Midnight Sun does open the windows to a disease that affects one in millions, and how the victim and her immediate circle cope with the sad and tragic possibility, and eventual certainty, of early death. However, the doors are only half-open, as is the xperience.

Rating: **

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEskVQgtwaI

Midnight Sun, 2006, Japanese, ‘Taiyô no uta’, 119 minutes, written by Kenji Bando

Kaoru dreamily gazes from her bedroom window each morning just before dawn. She can see a stretch of the beach in front of her parent's house on a hill in Kamakura, but focuses upon the activity at the bus stop where Koji and his two best friends meet before going surfing. The appearance of the sun causes her to lower the blinds and go to sleep, for she suffers from Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP) and exposure to the sun's rays has the potential to kill her.

At night she walks to the train station, plays her guitar and sings songs she has written, returning home just a few minutes before it starts getting light. One morning, she is at the bus stop singing when Koji arrives. Liking the song she was singing, he promises to go and listen to her perform as a street musician the first day of summer vacation but finds a loud and off-key man has occupied her spot. Koji finds her and takes her to Yokahama on his motor bike where her singing immediately draws a crowd.

Koji marvels at her extraordinary future, whereas he muses at his ordinary nature, as he asks to be her boyfriend. But she leaves immediately, as the rising sun reminds her that she cannot live a normal life. Koji tries and makes amends, after being sought out by her father, and starts to earn the 200,000 yen needed to pay for a studio session and production of a CD of Kaoru's songs. As she practices on her guitar, she finds her fingers becoming immobilized, the first sign that neurological damage from the disease is progressing.

Xeroderma pigmentosum

A genetic disease that is characterised by such extraordinary sensitivity to sunlight that it results in the development of skin cancer at a very early age. Children with XP can only play outdoors safely after nightfall. XP is due to defective repair of damage done to DNA by ultraviolet (UV) light. Whereas normal persons can repair UV-induced damage by inserting new bases into the DNA, XP patients cannot. A person with XP develops severe sunburn and eye irritation within minutes of exposure to sunlight. Other features of XP include very dry skin (xeroderma), blisters on the skin, heavy freckling, and dark spots on the skin. XP is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner. Defects in multiple genes have been identified that lead to XP. Avoiding UV light and using the highest level of sunscreen possible when exposure cannot be avoided helps prevent complications.

--From medicinenet.com

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