This was a movie I saw on the plane coming from London last year and it struck me with such emotions I started crying my eyes out right in the middle of my in-flight meal.
The premise of the movie is quite simple to begin with (and just hopelessly romantic). There’s a girl named Katie Price (played by Bella Thorne) who has a growing crush on the neighbourhood boy, Charlie (Patrick Schwarzenegger) . The only catch is that she can’t go outside to meet him because she is deathly sensitive to sunlight. The only time Katie is able to roam around freely is during the night when the sun is down.
Years pass and when Katie was playing her guitar and singing a song she wrote for random passerby like any other day, fate brings Charlie to meet Katie for the first time. After getting to know one another, a budding romance starts between them.
Charlie helped Katie achieve her dreams of getting the song she had written played on the radio. And after more dates and songs, their love for each other grows.
Katie doesn’t tell Charlie about her condition, though. She had been scared how Charlie would react to someone who can’t see the sun. Then one day, what was a romantic night out at the beach turned into a terrible nightmare as Katie lost track of time and was out when the sun started to rise.
She fell unconscious and left her dad and Charlie shocked. So much so that Katie’s dad forbade Katie from seeing Charlie. But after weeks of begging, Katie could soon go back out to see Charlie.
Now, it would have been a sweet story if the movie ended here. But it continued.
One day, Katie is shown trying to get her dad to meet a new woman. Her dad asks what she’s planning and her answer leaves him speechless. She knew that she wasn’t going to get any better and her last wish was to be out in the sun for the first (and last) time.
Charlie and Katie’s dad both agree on this notion after thinking hard about it. After bidding goodbye to the people she loved the most in her life, Katie, her dad, and Charlie sail out into the lake where Katie sees the sunrise for the first time.
Not so long after the movie cuts to show Charlie and Katie’s dad standing with Katie’s urn where they look out into the sun.
The story itself was a heartwarming one and I enjoyed it very much. Though I was quite surprised that it didn’t have an ending where Katie lived, but that made the story even more realistic. It made me think that not all happy endings have to end in the same way.