She only comes out at night.
For as long as she can remember, Katie Price has lived under the protection of a special UV window in her house.
The opening scene, a dream that she remembers of her mother holding her on the beach while playing guitar, but for Katie she can’t remember if thats true or not. This is because she has a rare condition, known as XP, (Xeroderma pigmentosum), which makes her extremely sensitive to the sun in a matter of life or death.
At first look, the film reminds one of another movie which came out last year. The film, Everything, Everything, more specifically and to be fair there are similarities that can be identified, especially by the fact of this movie being a young adult romance between two people that are separated by a house but that’s only the beginning.
Midnight Sun is a movie of a slightly different caliber, because Katie’s widowed father doesn’t keep her from going out at night. In fact, we get a sense of her freedom when she meets her best friend, Morgan who gets her to go to a party for the first time after graduation.
Directed by Scott Speer who also directed the Step It Up films, Midnight Sun perfectly captures the innocence of first love despite a terminal illness. The film could also be compared to another book franchise by Lurlene McDaniel who is most known for writing teen romances where at least one partner has a terminal illness. Though the movie is based on a different novel, by Trish Cook, one has to wonder if she might of got some inspiration from McDaniel. The writing definitely lends itself to the possibility.
Overall, the film stands up to the one line from the movie, “To Live in the moment, because you never know when it will end.” It’s a summer romance that for Katie is by far the best time of her life, when she finally gets to experience the love that had been growing inside of her since the first time she saw Charlie outside her window.