Every Day wants to be a love story about a soul that moves through bodies, but the movie keeps losing its footing. The premise is simple and strange: A is a spirit who wakes each morning in a new teenage body, and falls in love with Rhiannon, a 16-year-old whose father has suffered a mental breakdown. The film, directed by Michael Sucsy and written by Jesse Andrews, runs 97 minutes and stars Angourie Rice as Rhiannon and Justice Smith as A, shifting through a rotating cast of actors playing the various hosts.
The problem is that the film never quite decides what kind of story it wants to tell. It starts as a quiet romance about two people finding each other across a strange circumstance, but it keeps adding layers — a troubled home life, a private Instagram account, a transgender character, a possessed body — without giving any of them room to land. The result is a movie that is constantly moving forward but rarely settles anywhere meaningful.
Trailer, via Orion Pictures.
Rhiannon and A
Angourie Rice carries the film as Rhiannon, and she grounds the story in a performance that feels honest and wounded. Her relationship with A begins with a stolen day together, and Rice sells the chemistry between them. Justice Smith plays A, switching bodies throughout the film, and his performance is competent, though the role asks him to play a dozen people in quick succession without much time to establish any of them.
The film spends a lot of time on the mechanics of A’s condition. We learn that A has been shifting bodies since infancy, and that Rhiannon can communicate with A through a private Instagram account filled with photos taken in every host body. This is a clever idea, but the film treats it as a novelty rather than a way to deepen the relationship between the two leads. The Instagram account exists mostly as a device for exposition, not as a lived-in part of the story.
The Hosts
A moves through a long list of bodies over the course of the film, and the cast is full of familiar young faces:
- Justin, played by Justice Smith
- Amy, played by Debby Ryan
- Nathan, played by Lucas Jade Zumann
- David, played by Rory McDonald
- Megan, played by Katie Douglas
- James, played by Jacob Batalon
- Vic, played by Ian Alexander
- George, played by Sean Jones
- Xavier, played by Colin Ford
- Michael, played by Jake Sim
- Kelsea, played by Nicole Law
Maria Bello also stars in the film, though her role is not described in the material at hand. Each actor gets a brief scene as A, but the film rarely takes the time to make any of these bodies feel distinct. They are more like obstacles for the main couple to navigate than characters in their own right.
The Problem With the Story
The central issue is that the film never commits to its own premise. A is a spirit who lives in a new body every day, but the film treats the body-switching as a plot device rather than a philosophical core. It touches on themes of identity and belonging, but it never explores them in any depth. The film gestures toward the idea that a soul is what matters, not the body, but it never builds a case for why that matters beyond the surface level.
The film also struggles with pacing. At 97 minutes, it should be tight, but it feels stretched thin. The middle section, where A shifts through Amy, Nathan, David and Megan, drags because we are introduced to new people without ever getting to know them. The film keeps promising a payoff — a revelation about A’s past, a confrontation with Rhiannon’s father, a moment of truth — but none of them arrive with the weight they should.
The Tagline Is Better Than the Film
The tagline captures the essence of the premise better than the film itself: “Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.” It’s a promise the film doesn’t fully deliver on. The romance between Rhiannon and A is the one element that works consistently, but even it is hampered by the script’s refusal to let the two leads talk honestly about what they’re feeling.
A Quiet Romance That Gets Lost
There is a good movie buried inside Every Day, a quiet romance about two people who find each other across a strange circumstance. But the film keeps adding layers — a troubled home life, a private Instagram account, a transgender character, a possessed body — without giving any of them room to land. The result is a movie that is constantly moving forward but rarely settles anywhere meaningful.
The film’s best moments come when it stops trying to be everything and simply lets Rhiannon and A be together. The worst moments come when it tries to explain A’s condition or Rhiannon’s family situation in ways that feel rushed and incomplete. The film is at its most effective when it trusts the simplicity of its premise, and at its weakest when it tries to add weight to a story that doesn’t need it.
Every Day is a film that is trying to say something about love and identity, but it never quite finds the right words. It has a strong lead performance from Angourie Rice and a compelling premise, but it loses focus along the way. The result is a film that is pleasant to watch in short stretches but ultimately forgettable.
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