Midnight Sun

In filmmaker Scott Speer’s adolescent variant of 1940s tearjerkers, teenager Katie Price (Bella Thorne) suffers from xeroderma pigmentosum (so she can’t be in sunlight) and has been housebound and home-schooled by her protective father (Rob Riggle). For years Katie has watched attractive neighbor Charlie (Patrick Schwarzenegger, son of Arnold) pass by her window. Now grown into a strapping young high school senior, erstwhile swimming star Charlie has been hobbled by an injury. Sometimes Katie escapes her confinement after dark to sing for passersby, and whom should she meet one night but Charlie. Embarrassed, she runs away, but he tracks her down and they connect, although she keeps her condition a secret. Unhappily, a moonlit dip throws Katie’s watch out of commission, and before she realizes it, the sun comes up and she has to dash home. Will she make it in time? And will her influence encourage Charlie to start training again and win that college scholarship? Midnight Sun is an obstinately contrived, bathetic, and corny film. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include “An Inside Look” behind-the-scenes featurette (3 min.). Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are bonus DVD and digital copies of the film. Bottom line: a small extras package for a lame adolescent drama.] (F. Swietek)