Netflix: Review of THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL: Flipped Fates

October 20, 2022

There were two girls in the village of Gavaldon. Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) had long blond hair and a pretty face. Agatha (Sofia Wylie) had dark curls and plainer looks. They were both outcasts in their community, but they were the best of friends. When they learned about the legendary School of Good and Evil from the bookshop keeper Mrs. Deauville (Patti Lupone), Sophie wanted to go, but Agatha did not.

When the night of red moon came to pass, a giant bird-like creature called the stymph came into Gavaldon and picked the two girls up with it to fly them to the School of Good and Evil. However, witch-like Agatha was delivered to the School of Good, while princess-like Sophie was dropped off to the School of Evil. Sophie kept trying to argue that she had been brought to the wrong school, while Agatha kept wanting to go home.

David Magee's script was based on the YA books by Soman Chainani. The "good" Evers were being trained by Prof. Dovey (Kerry Washington). The girls were all pretty, always with coiffed hair and ball gowns, while the boys were dashing in their princely garb, did archery and sword fighting. The "bad" Nevers were under Lady Leonora Lesso (Charlize Theron). They all wore black Goth outfits, were cross and ill-mannered and engaged in dark shenanigans. 

It was these meticulously imaginative details in its elaborate production design and bombastic costume design that give this film a distinctive atmosphere of its own. Special visual effects are of course essential elements of a fantasy story like this, and their team of graphic artists and animators deliver on those counts as well, albeit in various degrees of finesse -- from arrows turning into daisies, to dragon tattoo on a girl's neck coming to life. 

Sofia Wylie is only 18 year old but she was able to give an empathetic performance as her Agatha learned important life lessons in friendship and love. Sophia Anne Caruso's Sophie had that difficult journey from thinking she was dropped in the wrong school to fully-accepting her inner witch-hood with aplomb. Jamie Flatters had the requisite charm to play the popular jock Tedros, who wielded Excalibur of his father King Arthur. 

Lawrence Fishburne with his strong screen presence could have had more scenes as Headmaster. Michelle Yeo was there, but only had one major scene teaching a trivial class. It seemed illogical for Charlize Theron to be teaching kids how to become ugly. Kerry Washington could not keep her smile genuine with all the meanness and oneupmanship in her School for Good. Cate Blanchett lent her beautiful speaking voice as the narrator. 

With a story involving teenage witches, this will be compared to the Harry Potter films, and come across as a pale copy. There could have been a more substantial back story about the twin brothers Rhian and Rafal (Kit Young) to make the story richer. This had an unwieldy length for a YA fantasy romance at 2-1/2 hours. It seemed director Paul Feig may have shot enough scenes for a mini-series but had to edit the material down to one long movie.  6/10.