REVIEW: “Every Day” is not meant for everyone

By Christine Kim,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Based on David Levithan’s 2012 best-selling novel, the young adult adaptation of “Every Day” is cliche and leaves the audience with questions and unresolved plots.

“Every Day,” directed by Michael Sucsy, is similar to his other works which also have a slow and easy-to-follow storyline.

A soul named “A” is a wandering soul who occupies a different body every day. The bodies “A” inhabits are always around the same age and live around the same area. Once “A” leaves their bodies, the person barely remembers what happened the previous day.

Rhiannon (Angourie Rice) is a 16-year-old who falls in love with “A” and the two of them work together to find each other each day.

Angourie Rice’s character is reminiscent of her previous role as Holly March in “Nice Guys,” but instead of being young and sagacious, she is portrayed as an unoriginally basic high schooler.

The movie kicks off with Rhiannon and her inattentive boyfriend Justin (Justice Smith). They are the overused “nice girl and arrogant guy pairing” until “A” takes over Justin’s body. Up until this point, “Every Day” could be mistaken as the teen romance version of “Freaky Friday.”

This movie attempts to address the themes of acceptance and diversity, but fails to do so. Despite the diversity of characters of various race, gender, social standing and sexual orientation, Rhiannon was clearly drawn to some characters and distanced herself from others based on appearance.

The movie closes with random clips from the future in the circumstance that “A” remains in his final host body, which was another arbitrary aspect of this film. Overall, the overabundance of characters causes the movie to lag on.

“Every Day” doesn’t require the audience’s full attention, as each encounter between Rhiannon and “A” is so similar. It is a great movie to watch after you have nothing else left to watch and have an hour and a half to spare.