The School For Good And Evil review: Young adult fairytale hits Hogwarts road with Disney cliches

Language: English

Why does evil need to be ugly? Or repugnant? “Because not caring about how you look forces you to use your intelligence,” explains a teacher at the School of Evil, insisting that ugliness is freedom and that, in turn, is power.

Director Paul Feig’s new fairytale adventure for young adults attempts course correction on the portrayal of good and evil in films — more broadly, in popular culture — over the years. Despite talk of change, cinema still hasn’t managed to overcome the basic cliche that drives its box office: the physical stereotyping of good as good-looking and evil as foreboding or ugly. Heroes and heroines, to this day, are meant to be beautiful people. Villains are mean and scary, often unnaturally so.

The School For Good And Evil starts off adhering to stereotypes, imagining Good in soft glows of whites, pinks, peaches and creams, with tiny fairies flying about in pretty flower gardens outside pristine castles. Evil is defined in blacks and greys, and by people who roam the corridors of darkness in Gothic kohl-lined eye makeup and a black wardrobe. Perhaps the cliches were necessary to create a sense of familiarity before dispelling them. Before long, after all, we see how fairies can be unpleasant, too, and Good is prone to get into the odd ugly brawl just as Evil. In a twist of imagination, cute Cupid transforms into a killing machine on being provoked. “A world where evil is not as powerful as good is a world out of balance,” Charlize Theron’s Lady Lesso, dean of the School for Evil, delivers the leitmotif.

Feig and David Magee’s screenplay is based on the 2013 fairytale fantasy novel of the same name written by American author of Indian origin, Soman Chainani. Briefly, Chainani’s book is about how humanity is essentially all about the eternal struggle between good and evil. Somewhere in the realm of fantasy is an enchanted school where youngsters are trained to be good or evil in order to protect the balance between the two forces for life to exist. Title cards at the start of the film set the mood, to build the mood for the story that follows: “Many years ago, two powerful brothers created a school to keep the balance between Good and Evilin the fairy tale world. The Brothers shared power peacefully for eons. But things seldom stay as they are…”

With violence and language that positions the film for 13 and above, the story begins in the village of Gavaldon where two misfits, quite unlike each other, become best friends almost at first sight. Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) loves fairytale and dreams of escaping the drudgery of her village life to be a queen someday. Agatha (Sofia Wylie) is of a cynical disposition. She lives by the village graveyard with her mother and almost everyone around believes she is a witch.

The screenplay isn’t clear about why Agatha is called a witch, just as it gives a rather superficial glimpse of Sophie’s dreary existence that drives her dream — of making it to the School Of Good. The drama kicks in when, one night under the blood red moon, Sophie and Agatha are transported to the magical School For Good And Evil by a gigantic bird. There is a twist: To her utter shock, Sophie discovers she has been granted admission at the School Of Evil. Agatha, who has no interest in magic schools and wants to return home, is taken into the School Of Good. In time tested fairytale tradition, Sophie now needs a true love’s kiss to get into the school she feels she rightfully belongs to.

Chainani has spoken of how Disney animated films he watched as a child influenced his storytelling, which is obvious as the narrative unfolds. The story accommodates references to Enchanted, Snow White and Cinderella, besides other children’s literature. Hercules, Sinbad and El Cid find their way into random dialogues. The Sheriff of Nottingham Robert de Rainault’s daughter and Captain Hook’s son Hort (Earl Cave in a delightful cameo) make appearance as Sophie’s schoolmates.

Director Feig looks towards Hogwarts for greater influence. Almost every new-age screen fantasy for kids and/or young adults on screen over the past two decades has revealed an effect of the Harry Potter franchise at some level, and The School For Good And Evil cannot escape the formulaic hangover. There are enough set-pieces — from gigantic birds to magical stairways to VFX-loaded sorcery sequences — to let you realise that Feig’s film could be just the tip of an upcoming young adult franchise. Chainani after all wrote the God And Evil novels as a hexalogy. While this film unfolds the story of the first novel, there are five books still waiting for the producers to tap.

Feig and David Magee’s screenwriting tries maintaining the mood of the novel, with Cate Blanchett acting as the voiceover that narrates a lot of the book’s descriptive paragraphs. The idea, however, is not an advantage all along because trying to maintain the tempo of the book cuts the film’s pace. At a runtime of nearly two and a half hours, it becomes clear within the first 20 minutes what the film is all about as the writers try following the detailed storytelling approach of the book. The second half, especially, resorts aimlessly to campus cliches to fill the runtime.

Sophia Anne Caruso and Sofia Wylie make a lively lead pair, striking the right chemistry to bring alive the buddy bonding scenes. Charlize Theron is cutting-edge stylish as the evil Lady Lesso while Kerry Washington makes a picture-perfect Professor Dovey, dean of the School Of Good. Laurence Fishburne and Michelle Yeoh find scope to impress, too, despite limited footage. The problem with the cast is they are given roles that are too derivative in nature.

This is a good looking film, cinematographed well (John Schwartzman) but revealing sloppy editing (Brent White) and a background score (Theodore Shapiro) that you’d feel you’ve heard once too often. As a director, Paul Feig has attempted Hollywood comedies across the board over the years, catering the quota of laughs with genres as varied as the Christmas movie (Unaccompanied Minors), the wedding flick (Bridesmaids), action (The Heat), spoof action (Spy), horror (Ghostbusters), and romance (Last Christmas), besides the odd dose of black humour (A Simple Favor).The trouble with his new film is, despite its bid to dissect good and evil in a novel way, the storytelling lacks impact. “The stronger the emotion, the more powerful the magic,” goes a dialogue in the film. Feig and company sure needed more magic.

Vinayak Chakravorty is a critic, columnist, and film journalist based in Delhi-NCR.

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