Movie Review: Every Day (2018)

Summary: A shy teenager falls for someone who transforms into another person every day.

Pros:

Cast and Characters. So the weird thing is that we really only spend time with two characters, it’s just that one of them wakes up in a different body everyday. So I’m going to handle this one a bit differently then I normally would.

• Angourie Rice as Rhiannon. The summary calls her “shy” but I wouldn’t really call her shy but she’s not like a popular kid or anything. She’s the girl next door. She’s a nice girl and she definitely tries to understand whatever A is, which was nice about her. I liked Angourie Rice, she was pretty, likable in the role and I believed that she was into A, because she seemed to have fun with whoever he was, once she got used to the idea.

So below is the entire list of actors who play the character “A”. 

• Justice Smith as Justin. He is Rhiannon’s boyfriend so we get to see him the most. The movie starts off with A in Justin, and apparently Justin isn’t the best boyfriend but A gives Rhiannon a great time, so when Justin returns, she’s confused and he’s confused because she keeps referencing something he doesn’t remember. I’ve only seen Justice Smith once before this movie, and he’s likable, even though Justin is a jerk, he was still kind of likable lol.

• Jeni Ross as Amy. The second one A is in, and who might confuse the audience if they don’t know what’s going on.

• Lucas Jade Zumann as Nathan. The third one, he shows up at a party, and connects with Rhiannon, pretending to be the cousin of the guy who is throwing the party. A doesn’t make it back to Nathan’s house so he thinks he was possessed by a demon lol.

• Rory McDonald as David. I think he was blind so nothing really happened here.

• Katie Douglas as Megan. This is when Rhiannon started to get weirded out because A told her, what was going on.

• Jacob Batalon as James. More exposition. They sit in a diner.

• Ian Alexander as Vic. He goes to Rhiannon’s school just to see her, and they talk more.

• Sean Jones as George. More talking but this is finally where Rhiannon starts to get a little more comfortable but they stay in the library.

• Colin Ford as Xavier. They go away for the weekend, we don’t learn much about him but it seems that Rhiannon liked him physically.

• Jake Sim as Michael. His family was going on vacation and according the rules, if A left the area in another person’s body then wherever that person stayed, is where A will stay. So he ran back to Rhiannon.

• Nicole Law as Kelsea. She was dealing with a lot, and this is where it’s discovered that A could stay in a person’s body for a time, so they did and got Kelsea help.

• Karena Evans as Hannah. The first time where A was in a body that they couldn’t hang out together as Hannah had a boyfriend, but I think this was their first kiss.

• Owen Teague as Alexander. So Rhiannon knows Alexander, they’re in the same class, he’s a good kid and A stays in him for a while, and then A makes a decision for Rhiannon while inside of Alexander. He did seem like a good kid. It’s just so weird to see Owen Teague being crazy Patrick Hockstetter and then being this kid lol.

• Hannah Richardson as Katie. The last person we see A in for the film.

Chemistry between A & Rhiannon. I think this movie banks on these two feeling like two people who are connecting past physicality. It’s kind of weird since A is a different person every time we see them, but it always manages to work out where Angourie Rice connects with whoever A is inhabiting.

The Story/Message. At its heart, the movie wants to say that love can go past the physical connection. Love is really what’s on the inside which is a sweet message. I don’t think it’s trying to push any kind of agenda or anything like that (the book I felt kind of did that in one particular part) but it’s managing to do it in the guise of a teen romance movie, which works in its own way.

Cons:

A as a Character. They’re not a bad character, it’s just that we never get to know them. We know Rhiannon way more which allows us to like and connect with her, but we never really get to know A. In the book, it’s told through their point of view so we get to see how their mind works and how they handle their life, but because the movie kind of follows Rhiannon (there’s a companion book Another Day which is told in her point of view) which keeps us from really knowing A. It really bothered me to be honest. All we get is all of the exposition that A gives every time they’re with Rhiannon. It was kind of annoying because A was just this mysterious being and while I like Rhiannon, I’d rather know what A is dealing with as the person they’re living as, but I guess the movie needed a constant which would be Rhiannon. *sighs*

Unanswered Plot threads. The book handles it a bit better I think, but we never really get to know what happened with that kid who claimed that he was possessed by the devil. Rhiannon goes to visit him but that’s the last time we see of him, in the book, we get a bit more of a plot with that character and I think it would have added a bit of edge to the movie so it wouldn’t just be this cheesy teen romance. I also would have liked for the movie to explore the idea that A wonders if there is anyone else out there like them. Yeah, they mention to Rhiannon that they’ve thought about it, but that’s it.

Weak storytelling. Sooooo I did not like the way the movie told the story. There was so much exposition that I would roll my eyes every time Rhiannon spoke with A. Yeah, I get that she needs to understand what’s going on, but that slows the movie down and it feels longer than it is, or even should be. This is literally how it would go “Rhiannon sees kid who might be A, talks to them for a while, and then maybe they have a moment” rinse and repeat. It’s not until we get into Colin Ford’s A (Xavier) that something really and actually happens. I think they could have either got Rhiannon to get on board a lot earlier and just let them be together or just limited the amount of exposition.

Overall, I thought it was a good movie. I had some issues, but I was also thinking of the book and how the book handled certain things in the story, which I thought the movie changed for no particular reason. Angourie Rice is good in her role, she’s likable, and sweet and she manages to handle the movie on her own, and she has good chemistry with all of the people who “A” inhabits, which is pretty cool. I also thought the message, “love transcends physical” is pretty cute and the movie managed to make that happen within these YA movie, without it coming off as cheesy. My problem with the movie comes from the audience not really getting the chance to know who A is, yeah we see them but we know get to really know them. I also didn’t really care for how the story was told, there was a looooot of talking and when they’re finally together, it’s pretty quick. But it’s a sweet movie, pretty harmless.

Rating: 3.3 out of 5 stars. 

Have you seen Every Day? Did you read the book? What did you think of the film and let me know in the comments below, the answer to my big question.

Big Question: Would you be able to be with someone who changed bodies every day?

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