A Fantasy With Potential, But Held Down By Details

Originally released as a novel in 2013, The School for Good and Evil was positioned for success. The novel was popular enough to spawn multiple sequels, and after several years, it had been translated into twenty-eight different languages and was a worldwide hit. Universal Studios acquired the rights to make the series into a movie not too long after it was released in 2013, and in 2020, tangible plans to turn it into production came to fruition as Netflix became involved. Now in 2022, the movie adaptation of the popular book finally made its way into the world.

The School for Good and Evil features a stacked cast with a lot of familiar names in movies, television, and stage acting. Sophia Wylie, who portrays Agatha, would be best recognized for her roles in High School the Musical: The Musical: Series, and Andi Mack. Paired opposite her is Sophia Ann Caruso, who originated the role of Lydia on Broadway in Beetlejuice. While these two round out the protagonists, they are supported by a plethora of other well-known names. Charlize Theron and Kerry Washington portray the Deans for the School of Good and Evil, while Laurence Fishburne is the school’s pseudo-headmaster.

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Michelle Yeoh can be seen briefly in scenes as the School for Good’s beautification teacher, and so can Peter Serafinowicz and Shadow and Bone’s Kit Young. The more astute may notice the likes of Rachel Bloom and Patti LuPone, disguised under costumes, hair, and makeup, appearing in certain scenes towards the beginning. There is an eclectic, but unexplained, mixture of British and American accents scattered throughout this show, showing the diversity of the cast while also leading to some major questions throughout. Directed by Paul Feig, The School for Good and Evil is an ambitious pursuit in today’s world that still lives in the shadow of Harry Potter.

Related: The School for Good and Evil Gets Final Trailer Ahead of Netflix Premiere

Two Girls Find Themselves in Opposite Situations

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The School for Good and Evil has two main protagonists: Sophie (Caruso) and Agatha (Wylie). They are friends living in the same mortal town, and they both stick out like sore thumbs. Acquaintances their age mock them as witches, as do the local townsfolk. Agatha, who has to support her mother, takes it all in with a heavy heart, but Sophie no longer can tolerate what happens to them. After a bookshop owner tells them about a place called the School for Good and Evil, Sophie wishes that she could be taken away there, and, in the middle of the night, the two friends are kidnapped and taken there. That is when their stories diverge: Sophie, who embodies all things good and kind in the world, is dropped off at the School for Evil, while Agatha finds herself at the School for Good.

Immediately, it becomes obvious that Agatha and Sophie do not belong where they were placed. Agatha resists what the School of Good teaches them, such as needing to become beautiful and smile to get a date. Her stubbornness leads her to befriend another classmate who does not seem to belong at the school, consistently failing at the tasks assigned to him. Agatha openly calls out the customs and practices in the School of Good when her friend is transformed into a demon because he could not meet expectations and earns three failing marks in his classes. Meanwhile, in the School of Evil, Sophie has been chosen by a force of evil himself. Despite initially resisting the teachings of the School of Evil, she almost accidentally kills a classmate who hates her for being too good and begins to descend into the dark side.

Agatha’s and Sophie’s story heavily becomes intertwined with the movie’s prologue, in which two brothers, one representing good and the other evil, fight, leading to the evil brother’s death. His spirit and passion for evil live on, though, and he begins to follow Sophie, luring her in to become his champion. The headmaster of the School of Evil becomes involved with this plan in a quest for evil to finally triumph over good. She sees Sophie as the savior the school has been waiting for all these years, and despite what Sophie thinks or not, she will not let Sophie ruin her plans. There is more to this story that she does not know though, as there are deadly consequences of this evil plan.

At the same time, the two friends build upon a plan they concocted at the beginning of their stay at their schools: with true love’s kiss, one can wish for whatever one wants, even if it means one wishes to go home. This becomes Agatha’s crux for trying to get home, while Sophie decides that she wants to win over the School for Good’s golden boy: Tedros. The two girls believe Tedros is Sophie’s one true love, but if this story wanted to go the easier route for its protagonists, that would be the case. Instead, Sophie slowly succumbs to the effects of evil, sending everything the two were working for down a tumultuous path.

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A Movie That Tries to Do It All

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For fans of the fantasy genre, specifically within young adult contexts, and of the source material, this movie may hold up. It riffs off of the classic fairytales, as Sophie’s and Agatha’s classmates are all descended from someone familiar to most who know Western-style stories, and builds upon the classical themes of what good and evil are. At the same time, it looks to subvert those expectations by bringing in a character like Agatha, who is openly against what the School of Good is teaching its pupils. Agatha and Sophie embody both good and evil, which is something their headmasters come to acknowledge, even if it pains them to do so. Some of the CGI pivots between a commercial fantasy movie and a couple of questionable decisions but does a solid job of conveying nuances of the world effectively.

Throughout the movie, there is a constant reiteration of rules. One must act or dress a certain way to be good or evil, but, as Agatha continues to argue with the Dean for the School of Good, people are complicated. As the movie hurtles towards its later half, it begins to tighten this narrative hook established earlier through Agatha’s protests, but it comes a little too late. By its end, The School for Good and Evil has several key takeaways. A key one is that true evil goes beyond the archetypes and stereotypes of what evil can look like, and wanting to win a competition to make a point about wanting to appear a certain way is futile. Another is about the nature of friendship and betrayal, which quickly oscillates back and forth between two completely different opposite spectrums.

But with all of these rules and takeaways, one of the movie’s biggest plight is that it tries to do too much all at once, and it does so in a rushed manner. There are enough twists to pack into a television series with at least ten episodes, and the number of characters and relationships going on in the background can be a bit overwhelming. Several characters are introduced briefly and then get shoved to the side in favor of exploring the main character’s relationship with each other and Tedros, only to never be brought up again outside of a brief glimpse of them in a hallway or during a fight. Other plotlines are conveniently forgotten for the sake of moving on to the next plot point, such as Agatha being mocked and not fitting in at her school, leading to some confusing linearity about where in the timeline the movie is during certain scenes.

The ending directly implies an intent to turn this into a franchise, but The School for Good and Evil seems uncertain. Maybe it would have been better executed as a television series and not a movie franchise, but, perhaps, another movie might be able to change minds. Until then, the meta moments scattered throughout and the philosophical musings may not be enough to captivate the average viewer who is not already a diehard fan of the series. The School for Good and Evil had massive potential to be the next Harry Potter for another generation but may be too ambitious with the first installation. With the talent the movie has employed in its cast, too, it seems like such a shame to delegate them to side roles that only get a brief two minutes to shine.

The School for Good and Evil is available to stream on Netflix as of October 19, 2022.

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