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THE CHANGEOVER
Director: Miranda Harcourt and Stuart McKenzie Cast: Erana James, Timothy Spall, Nicholas Galitzine, Benji Purchase, Melanie Lynskey, Lucy Lawless, Kate Harcourt MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:35 Release Date: 2/22/19 (limited) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | February 21, 2019 The Changeover is an adaptation of Margaret Mahy's 1984 novel of the same name, aimed at young adults and with a subtitle proclaiming it a "supernatural romance." The book arrived more than two decades before that genre of literature became a phenomenon. The movie, on the other hand, seems to be arriving a few years after the trend began dying down. Here it is anyway, and it's fascinating to see how Mahy's material, brought to the screen by directors Miranda Harcourt and Stuart McKenzie (The latter also wrote the screenplay), established a foundation for the stories that would come later—as well as how those future genre exercises diverged from Mahy's standard. Perhaps the most noteworthy deviation is that the romance seems of secondary importance to this tale of a teenage girl named Laura (Erana James), who experiences premonitions of doom. Her latest involves her younger brother Jacko (Benji Purchase), who adores his sister and to whom Laura serves as a primary caretaker. Their mother Kate (Melanie Lynskey) works long and late hours to provide for her kids, after the siblings' father left a few years ago. The plot features a new and sinister arrival to the suburb of Christchurch where Laura's family lives. He's Carmody Braque (Timothy Spall), who runs a shop in a shipping crate. As his villainous intentions become clearer, Laura begins to learn about her strange powers from Sorensen (Nicholas Galitzine), a guy who comes from a family of witches. One can pretty much assume where this story will go, although it is to the filmmakers' credit that the most obvious narrative element—an inevitable romance between Laura and Sorensen—is an afterthought, saved for the movie's final moments. Instead, this is the tale of a young woman, uncertain of her place in the world but certain of what genuinely matters to her, figuring out what she's capable of being and doing. That quality sets the movie above most of the more recent examples of teen-oriented supernatural romances, if only because it sees Laura as more than a lovelorn protagonist. The Changeover allows her to be the hero of her own story. Unfortunately, the story, which involves all sorts of distracting schemes and spells and even time travel, gets in the way of the movie actually being about her, instead of the various supernatural contrivances of the plot. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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