The School for Good and Evil, Film Review

georgeapp137

Oct 31

There are two sides to every story.

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The School for Good and Evil follows best friends Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) and Agatha (Sofia Wylie), who reside in the lowly town of Gavaldon and both dream of a better life. One day the pair are told of the infamous School for Good and Evil, an institution that trains up the next generation of fairy tale heroes and villains, prompting Sophie to write to the school and ask to be admitted. Soon enough Sophie's wish is granted and the two girls are carried awayl, only to then be dropped in the 'wrong schools'. Sophie is horrified to be surrounded by villainous Nevers whereas Agatha feels completely out of place surrounded by the princess Evers. Both girls plead with their respective school deans to let them leave but the decision is said to be final.

Appealing to the school Headmaster (Laurence Fishburne), he sets a challenge, if Sophie can prove she is good at heart by achieving true love's kiss, he will let her attend the School for Good. Setting her sights on King Arthur's son Tedros (Jamie Flatters), Sophie and Agatha scheme to get Tedros to fall for Sophie and achieve a kiss of true love. Like all fairytales however nothing is ever as it seems, Sophie and Agatha may remain adamant they are in the wrong schools but maybe they're exactly where they need to be and they might just be the greatest fairytale characters the school has ever seen.

As a book adaptation The School for Good and Evil definitely made some changes, leaving out major plot points and characters and generally losing a lot of what made the book special. Obviously this is a film adaptation so the production team had a limited timeframe but I think when you compare the two the film definitely pales in comparison. Sophie I think for example was made far too likeable whereas Agatha wasn't nearly as weird enough, both actors did an amazing job with what they were given but in the grand scheme of things both characters lost a lot of what made them Sophie and Agatha in the first place. Some of these changes may seem small and petty to some but I think moving forward if future films were to be made the team would struggle to keep the storyline intact because some of these seemingly smaller aspects have a much bigger impact further down the line.

As I said above Sophie and Agatha weren't 100% book accurate but I still think both actresses did a brilliant job, both bringing something really amazing to their respective role. Sophie as I said was far nicer and sympathetic than she should of been but Caruso absolutely nailed her mannerisms, love of fashion and style, and general attitude, I just loved her sense of swagger. Wylie was also great as Agatha, I admit I was nervous because I think the trailers really underplayed her role but this version really sold me on Agatha's inner kindness and I just loved her chemistry with Tedros. The two also played off of each other brilliantly which was probably the most important part of all considering how essential their friendship is to the series.

The visual effects and actual world of The School for Good and Evil were brilliantly done and parts of the story were exactly how I imagined them when reading. The two schools and characters within were a great representation of the original text and I think it is only the many changes made that somewhat jade my opinion of this adaption. Style wise though this film was spot on and I really loved the recreations of the building work, situations and scenes right from Chainani's original work, since he cameoed himself in the film I'm sure he's very proud of everything that was achieved, such a powerful world has really been recreated down to the last letter.

Overall the film adaptation of The School for Good and Evil was a mixed bag of a watch. The visual effects, world building and performances were all brilliantly done and I think in this regard the film really captured the original book's magic. However the film also made so many changes that the end result was only a thin representation of the original story and a lot of these changes may come back on the film producers if any sequels are planned in the future. Overall though I did enjoy watching this film and would definitely watch more, I only hope later adaptations will be more faithful.

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