The Changeover (2017)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Instant Favorite.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Blistering performances.

Other than a particulary creepy turn by Timothy Spall and a decent lead from Erana James this really is very average. First half of the movie is encouraging when Spall (who is has some sort of mortality to maintain and possesses children to continue this) has the upper hand over Erana and the little boy but tails off badly from around the time Erana James starts the process to become a witch via a secret coven of her boyfriends family. The boyfriend is a witch apparantely? I didnt know guys could be witches Latter stages of the movie it gets batshit crazy. Spall gets dissolved with Erana using some witch trick. Anyone watching for Melanie Lynskey beware, she has limited screentime (15 mins). Lucy Lawless was in the movie, I barely recognised her. She played one of the witches.

I really went in to watching this film with high hopes. Teenager discovers she has hidden powers and tries to rescue her younger brother. Story starts off well and had my interest for about 30 minutes in and THEN it fell flat. The actors are actually perfect but the movie tried to form chemistry between the main actor and actress in a way that did not fit with the movie. There was a lack of build up for the audience, I kept waiting to be amazed while the main actress discovers herself but truth is she remained boring until the very end. This movie could have been great, may be lack of funding but something was wrong so therefore i could only give it a 3/10.

A 5 on a 1-10 scale of watching something while bored. It has some interesting parts, but it's certainly not something I'd be yearning to see. Like I said above....if I'm bored, and I have nothing to do and I want to watch a movie, then if all the movies I really want to see aren't options..... out of what might be left, I'd give this a 5. Maybe 4. But I'm giving it an overall of 3 which might be a little generous right now. It did have a few unexpected interesting & scary scenes though. Many things to say, but I don't want to want create any spoilers.

If I had to pick one, and only one thing about the movie, it would have to be cinematography. That movie was carried, emotionally, by stunningly skillful cinematography. The interaction between narrative and camera work was very close and very clever. It is worth seeing for the cinematography alone, but cinematography is not alone in making it worth seeing. It is magical. Magical realism. Totally believable, sensitively portraying the craft, but above all, simply, magical.Acting: You will love newcomer Erana James, and the chemistry between her and Nick Galitzine. But here I just want to pick out Timothy Spall for the fact that he can make you think, 'oh, come on, Carmody Braque's not so bad...' when you know full well that he is, he is that bad. Oh, and Lucy Lawless for command of silence. A big one, of course, for lovers of the book, is the screenplay. Yes, yes, yes, it absolutely had to be updated. It is a story about the craft in the now, so now it must be. This, I think, drove a lot of the decision making for the movie...? Of course it had to be Christchurch, the city is a character in the story. No, it is not 'the book' and I never expected it to be, nor should it be. It was tight, focused and tells the right story in the right way. What you experience is the emotional journey - a female story - told in emotional understanding and powerful imagery. OK, I am not a director and I don't know how to be one, but, like books and editors, I know when there has been one (or more)! The performances from the younger actors were surely created by the direction at least as much as by those actors themselves. That much is plain to see. What other magic was worked, I do not know, but I do know it was there from the result. And afterwards? What happened? I re-entered the world in a daze of sensitivity. Everything was hyper-real, every sound, every light ray, every colour, every sensation. I was.. in touch. Of course, it gradually faded, but I have not felt that alive in quite a while. Thank you.