* * 1/2
You may ask how I felt about Every Day. I can’t exactly say it worked, but a more interesting question would be “Could Every Day have worked?” That is what I
am sitting here deep in thought about. While it may not be a good movie, Every Day is also a fascinating anomaly
that can’t possibly be forgotten and deserves further examination. As far as
plot is concerned, I cannot think of a single film like it.
Rhiannon (Angourie Rice) seems
like an average, unremarkable teenage girl. She is dating Justin (Justice
Smith). When the film begins, he encourages her to cut school for the day and
spend a day on the boardwalk together. She gleefully agrees. They sing along to
the radio and play in the sand. She even tells him intimate details about her
home life – particularly her issues with her isolated father, who underwent a
manic episode some time ago – details so personal her best friend doesn’t even
know about them. A wonderful day was had, but all good things must come to an
end.
The following day, Justin is
back to his cocky and selfish old self. He wants to keep Rhiannon as his
girlfriend, but less out of genuine love than simply a token. Quite a boring
fellow, too: he invites her over to his place, but all he does is sit and play
video games (she doesn’t even get to play). Her friends tell her to dump him,
but she seems content.
Strange things begin to
happen. Rhiannon is frequently approached by random peers, all enthusiastic to
get to see her. Here is where things get interesting, to say the very least:
there is an entity of sorts, self-dubbed A. A (I don’t know whether to refer to
A as he or she – undoubtedly the point) spends every single day as a different
person. A just happened to be Justin one day, and fell in love with Rhiannon the
minute A met her. At first, Rhiannon cannot believe just what the hell is going
on, but soon she realizes that this is in fact happening, falling in love with
A in the process.
I’m going to get my cynicism out
of the way first. The moral of the story is that it all matters what’s on the
inside, not on the outside. Fine, I suppose, and Every Day is a very interesting take on this moral. However, it’s
easy for Every Day to say “love what’s
on the inside” when the entire cast was clearly hired for their beautiful faces,
maybe with the exception of the token overweight boy that A embodies at one
point – even then, he might be a handsome chap if he lost some weight.
I may cease my cynicism there,
but my criticisms continue. Every Day is
based on the young adult novel of the same name by David Levithan. I have no
opinion on the novel as I’ve not read it. However, I’ve read a few reviews that
suggest maybe it just doesn’t translate to film all that well. This could be,
but it doesn’t matter, because Jesse Andrews’s screenplay has too many wrinkles
in it. When characters talk, the dialogue seems insecure with itself and kind
of stutters, sometimes to cringe-inducing levels as the actors aren’t quite
sure how to vocalize the directionless dialogue.
Even if such wrinkles were
ironed out, there is no easy way to fix the rocky narrative. One of the biggest
issues in Every Day is lack of establishment
and exposition. Take the opening, for instance: this is probably the first time
Rhiannon has had such a wonderful day with Justin, but nothing about their
relationship was established prior, so it ends up seeming more like this is
what every day with the two is like – turns out it’s quite the contrary.
Another huge subplot in the film is Rhiannon’s broken family life with her
isolated father, workaholic mother, and her foul-attitude sister – all of this
is only hinted and implied at, save for when Rhiannon discusses her father
early in the movie.
And even if that were fixed, I still have a hard
time believing these are teenagers involved in this extraordinary situation. More
specifically, I have a hard time believing the freedom that these kids seem to
have. The teens in the film seem to be able to run off and do their own thing
without any significant consequence (a slap on the wrist at absolute harshest).
Once again using the opening as an example, these two cut school for an entire day (as in the sun is setting by
the time they’re on their way back), and they are never punished – their
parents aren’t even called. Perhaps this scenario would work better with adults
involved.
A lesser issue compared to
everything else, but still glaring enough that I have to bring it up. Every Day cannot decide on a tone. One
minute, it’s lovey-dovey, next minute it’s trendy and hip with its indie pop
soundtrack, and then it wants to be deep and philosophical a la a less
competent Terrence Malick.
In spite of all this, Every Day was at least involving. As
much as I scratched my head, I was also very engaged and intrigued in seeing
where this strange scenario would go next. Certainly this is due mostly to the
sheer originality of the story, but the performances also play a big part in
this. Other than Justice Smith (the definition of ‘wooden’), everybody is
rather good, especially leading lady Angourie Rice. There were even some moving
moments from time to time – I was touched by a scene where A takes the body of
a suicidal girl. The originality of the story is worth experiencing, but Every Day ultimately doesn’t work with its awkward script, crooked
narrative, uncertain tone, and plausibility that becomes distractingly questionable.
Perhaps the book is better.
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