Every Day review

A teen romance with a twist, Every Day tells the story of Rhiannon (Rice), who is surprised to spend a lovely, meaningful and fun day with her usually thoughtless boyfriend Justin (Smith). It turns out that for that one perfect day, Justin wasn’t actually entirely Justin – his mind was inhabited by ‘A’, a spirit (for want of a better description) who wakes up every morning in a different body and spends the day living in it before moving onto the next person at midnight. So Justin goes back to being his regular, chain-smoking, monosyllabic self, but A wants to carry on being around Rhiannon.

While A has no control who – male or female – he/she is going to inhabit next, it’s always someone near to the previous body and of a similar age, so A becomes a new student who befriends Rhiannon at school, a geeky kid she meets at a party, a home-schooled boy and another who meets her in a diner and explains it all to her. Of course, he/she has fallen for Rhiannon, but there’s complications ahead – not least the fact that A never knows where, or who he/she will be next.

Based on the Young Adult bestseller by David Levithan, this is a sweet and quirky love story with shades of Groundhog Day and Big that subtly touches on identity, personality, and love being more than skin deep. Cynics may note that A – body-swapping aside – is perhaps too perfect, kind, sensitive, sweet and totally devoted, but each actor that inhabits the character brings something new that makes it all plausible.

The direction is a bit plodding in places, but a warm, lovely performance from Rice more than makes up for any minor flaws in the script and plot. A star in the making, her central role – especially as she realises she’s fallen for A – is worth the admission price alone.