The Changeover

I didn't know anything about the novel. I mainly watched it because I saw Timothy Spall's name. I found this movie engaging. Because of an element in the plot a large part of the movie has a surreal, dreamlike quality. The young female lead, Erana James, is very good. She has a fierceness that makes her character very believable. I'm not a huge fan of 'young adult' fiction. I usually find it condescending to its target audience but I got into this movie pretty quickly and it kept me to the end. Definitely worth a watch if you're channel surfing and come across it.

This film legit reviewers/ratings probably average to 2 out of ten stars after discounting shill reviews. It is narrative train wreck. It is also a significant, in fact profound dumbing down and making "safe" of what was a great teen novel.

Timothy Spall counts for a good 5 of those 7 stars. He plays the sinister bad guy absolutely perfectly.

The rest is...flawed. There are some great moments, great ideas, great little bits of dialogue, but it's so disjointed and with so many bits that take away from the good that it feels a shame.

I don't know if it's the writing, the directing or the editing, but at some point it went wrong and a good idea lost it's flow.

Nonetheless, if you're a fan of the genre, I'd recommend it

When I saw the name Timothy Spall, I thought this was going to be great, surely such a great actor would only sign up to a great film right, wrong? Him apart it is a poor film, I've not read the book, but I'll judge the film based on what I've seen. Quite simply put, the ideas and plot are excellent, and rather original. What it lacked sadly, was any pace, urgency, tension or real threat, it's another so called horror movie that is advisable for people up to the age of fifteen. Spall is the only real positive, but he's wasted here. 4/10

I like witches, I liked the story, but that was wayyy too long of a movie. It was really boring and it saddens me a bit because this movie had a lot of potential.