[yasr_overall_rating]
A shy teenager falls for someone who transforms into another person every day.
I heard very little about “Every Day” upon its initial theatrical release. Once I read about the premise, I remembered a book with the same name that had come out a few years earlier in 2012. When Warner Bros. sent me a review copy, I had a stack of titles to critique but something about this film’s story persuaded me to watch it first. And I’m so glad I did. “Every Day” is one of those rare feel-good movies about falling in love with someone regardless of their skin color, sexual orientation, body size, and seeing them for who they truly are, on the inside. It’s just a pity that a lot of people in this day and age couldn’t be more compassionate and considerate like the characters herein.
The film begins with Rhiannon (Angourie Rice), a teenage girl who lives with her mother Lindsey (Maria Bello) and father Nick (Michael Cram) and sister Jolene (Debby Ryan). Her parents are estranged ever since Nick had a breakdown a few years earlier, forcing Lindsey to go back into the workforce. She only ever sees Jolene when they travel to school together in the mornings and her boyfriend Justin (Justice Smith) is only with her because she’s pretty and he takes advantage of her emotional dependence on being with him. She thinks they are in love but the truth is that he doesn’t love her, he is going out with her just so he can have sex with her whenever he feels like it and sadly, she cannot see this, she thinks it is true love.
One day at school, Justin acts completely different around her. He is attentive, a good listener, completely absorbed with her, and he whisks her away from school for the rest of the day, visiting the lake, the city aquarium, eating out at a nice restaurant, and then they spend the remainder of the day just talking to each other, something they’ve never done before. For Rhiannon, it has been the best day of her life but at school the next day, Justin is back to his usual conceited ways, stating that he has no recollection of the previous day’s events. Naturally, this upsets Rhiannon as she feels he took advantage of her but when a new girl, Amy (Jeni Ross) comes to school, she introduces herself to Rhiannon and asks if it’s okay if she hangs out with her for the day as she is new to the area. Rhiannon agrees but during the course of their conversation, she mentions things to her that transpired when she was out with Justin. Rhiannon gets freaked out and excuses herself, stating that she is not feeling well.
Sometime later, she is at a party with Justin and as he and his friends are getting drunk, she meets Nathan (Lucas Jade Zumann), a young man who is dancing by himself. She feels sorry for him and joins him on the dance floor. Like Amy before him, he mentions things to her about the day she spent with Justin, aspects of that day that only she would know about and says he will explain everything to her if she meets him again. She agrees and when she meets him at a restaurant, he does not look the same, he now goes by the name of James (Jacob Batalon). He tries to explain to her that for all of his life, he has woken up every morning in the body of a different person, and never the same body twice. He explains that the day she and Justin were together, it was actually him inside of Justin’s body and that he has fallen in love with her. She asks him questions that only she and Justin would know about and he is able to answer each one without fail. Weirded out, she claims that she needs time to think about it and soon thereafter, she agrees to meet him again. He now calls himself A, so as not to confuse himself with the body he is inside of and the two fall for each other.
Along their journey, he tells her about all the different people’s bodies and minds he has occupied, some male, some female, and that it has given him a great insight and perspective on humanity in general. As he takes over the body of a fellow schoolmate of Rhiannon’s named Alexander (Owen Teague), she asks him if he can stay inside his body for more than one day. He tells her that typically after 24 hours, the person whose body he is occupying, pushes him out and he winds up inside someone else. He tries, for Rhiannon, and is successful, staying inside of Alexander for another day. After a few days of doing this, he informs Rhiannon that he cannot do it any more because it is not fair to Alexander as it takes away from his life. He explains that while he has never loved anyone before, afraid to tell anybody about his situation, he feels that it is best if they split up and go their separate ways. Rhiannon won’t hear of it but he explains that were they to try and make the relationship work, down the road, it would be difficult. What if he were to wake up inside the body of a married person? A mother with children? It would make being together for them almost impossible. In the end, she agrees, hesitantly, and with three hours to go before midnight, they spend one last magical night together.
Sometimes, a film comes along with elements that are so fantastical and implausible, it takes away from the rest of the story but here, everything gels together perfectly, and the outlandish aspects that would normally render a film problematic, actually help elevate and make it better. Angourie Rice is perfect as Rhiannon, her wide-eyed innocence, accompanied by her self-effacing personality and quest for eternal true love, make her a breath of fresh air, totally disconnected from her counterparts, all brimming with sarcasm and cynicism. It is never explained how A travels from body to body, just that it has been happening to him for as long as he can remember but we are willing to overlook that particularity because the performances throughout outweigh any of the movie’s shortcomings, which are far and few between. If you are looking for the perfect love story, look no further.
Now available on Blu-ray
