Once Upon A Lifetime (2021) Film Review : The Fast-Forward Life of Joy
As a boy copes with his difficult home life and his parents’ failing marriage, a mysterious girl suddenly appears. Faith, family and a special kind of magic come together as his new friend teaches them all about love, forgiveness and healing
Garry Llewellyn
7 min read
Once Upon A Lifetime 4 / 5
The film explores how people can enter your life without reason and provide a positive impact and then suddenly vanish seemingly job done.
★★★★
👍 What works (The Good)
A Brilliant Concept with Emotional Weight:
Impressive Character Continuity:
Standout Performances
👎 What doesn’t (The Bad)
Jarring Audio and Sound Discrepancies
Abrupt Pacing and Scene Transitions:
Visually Restrained Style
Where to watch on streaming
Introduction To Once Upon A Lifetime
Written and directed by David Skato, Once Upon a Lifetime is an independent feature co-produced with Cecily Jamelia, alongside executive producers Magalene Sudduth, Narlyia Sterling, and Jensen Atwood.
The film opens with some rather choice language from a high school bully beating up Thomas (Phoenix Nicholson). While Thomas is on the ground, he sees a strange girl watching him. He sees the girl again shortly after another beating, and they have an odd conversation. Something is not quite right with the little girl. Is she a ghost, an alien, or something else? Thomas decides to make a sharp exit from the girl, only for her to appear outside his home. His mum, Tatyana (Arie Thompson), befriends the girl, now called Joy, and invites her to stay while they figure things out. Soon, a strange thing happens overnight. Joy gets older.
Once Upon A Lifetime Script/ Screenplay
There are a handful of films that explore the concept of rapid ageing, M. Night Shyamalan’s Old and David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button spring to mind. Whilst ‘Old’ concentrates on the mystery of an ageing family stuck on an island and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button revolves around a love story complicated by backward ageing. Once Upon a Lifetime uses a rapidly ageing stranger to help a family understand and come to terms with its issues.
The script deals with school bullying, a husband having an affair, and a mother who is too proud or scared to act, and it even has a heartfelt discussion on death.
One area where the script seems a little disappointing is the family structure. Once Upon a Lifetime seems to be focused on a very traditional, if not old-school, family dynamic. One where the man provides for the family and the woman simply cooks, cleans, and looks after the kids. Some more character developments could have brought out a more modern-style family dynamic.
Whether due to budget constraints or runtime limitations, some cuts between scenes leave unanswered questions. For example, Thomas goes to camp in one scene, but is suddenly back at the family home in the next. Who picked him up, when did he get back home?
It’s not all doom and gloom though. Skato has injected humour throughout the narrative to break up the serious topics. Joy has a streak of naivety that continues as she ages, and this allows for some nice moments for the cast to play off. A recurring joke with a doctor was fun.
Overall, the script is structured well and Skato does a fine job with Joy’s ageing and impact on the family dynamic.
''Thompson can be comedic when needed and throw a full-on meltdown when called for.''
Garry The Silver Hedgehog.
Once Upon A Lifetime: Casting
Special Mention has to be given to all the actors that played Joy..
Raquel Reyes plays Joy age 9
Reyes is first up playing the confused stranger with a grin. Reyes captures and creates Joy’s personality perfectly and provides a good basis for those that follow.
Sophia Glemaud plays Joy at 16
Glemaud looks familiar to me, but I do not know where from. In Once Upon a Lifetime, she takes the character cues from Reyes and adapts them to a teenager. A little older, the teenage Joy is both confused and amazed at the same time. A difficult task to pull off, but Glemaud nails it. Joy’s smile continued on…
Cecily Jamelia plays Joy at 40
Jamelia takes Joy’s personality and adapts it to be a little older but not a little wiser. Jamelia managed to find some fun in Joy learning to drink alcohol whilst an adult, and she continued the smile.
Joan Moten plays Joy at 70
As the last Joy, Moten had the responsibility of losing Joy’s sense of playfulness and switching to a more sombre topic of death. Played just as well as the others, Moten made sure that her personality traits carried through, even the smile.
Arie Thompson as Tatyana and Jensen Atwood as Joseph
Thompson’s character is a woman scorned. Torn between protecting a failing marriage, caring for her family, and suddenly having to care for Joy, Thompson gives a powerful performance. You believe that she is the mum of the family. Thompson can be comedic when needed and throw a full-on meltdown when called for. You can tell she is giving it everything in the scene when she realises that her marriage is over; she shows a lot of raw emotion (and is much in need of a tissue!). It’s a shame then that the same level of passion doesn’t come back the other way from her on-screen husband (Atwood). Atwood’s character, Joseph, is about as low as a husband can get. His idea of being a real man is to have an affair for about a year and then tell his wife face to face. I didn’t really buy Atwood as the nasty husband. He comes across as a nice fellow, and his attempts to play upset husband come across a bit creepy. In the ‘break-up’ scene whilst Thompson is giving her all, Atwood’s reaction is to sit there with a glazed look, hardly any reaction. Yet, in other scenes where he is parading around the house berating Joy, it’s like a different actor is playing Joseph.
Phoenix Nicholson as Thomas
Casting Thomas had to be right, as the character has a lot to do in this film. Nicholson is cast perfectly. Not only does he look like he can hold his own in a fight (and take the punches), he is able to convey the sensitive side of being a child amiss during a parental break-up and switch to just being a kid enjoying life when around Joy. It’s a great performance, and without him, the film simply would not work!
Once Upon A Lifetime: Sound/Music/
Score
For an independent film shot on a budget, Once Upon a Lifetime has a decent score / soundtrack. Skato does not feel the need to fill every scene with background music, and this is really refreshing. Independent films have a tendency to be filled with end-to-end library music that can get quite grating.
Unfortunately, though, the sound quality, on the screener I viewed, was not too great. Some scenes sounded warbly, an artefact often caused by over-aggressive digital noise reduction (I get the same effect when I do too much noise reduction on my podcast),
while others could benefit from a spot of noise reduction. I am mindful that I watched a pre-release version on a streaming service, so that could account for it.
The film is complemented by some tracks by the artist Emorie.
Once Upon A Lifetime: Video Quality
The screener did not specify the video quality, but it looked sharp enough. The imagery was bright, and the film makes good use of stock footage in-between scenes (look out for a surprise squirrel). I did notice a couple of shots that had trouble with contrast, losing some definition, but that’s a small grumble. Skato has a keen eye for detail, and sweeping shots are complemented by shots focused on the central actor in the scene. None of it is jarring, and I found the cinematography really brought you into the story. It reminded me a lot of a soap opera style of filmmaking. It is very well done.
Once Upon A Lifetime: Visual Effects
As far as effects go, Once Upon A Lifetime does not have a massive amount of visual effects that appear obvious on screen. Likely due to budget and technical constraints, we do not witness Joy's physical ageing on screen. Instead, Skato cleverly utilises off-camera transitions to handle the progression. This is handled very well with a continuity of Joy’s clothing, for example. If given the budget and technical support, I would love to see how Skato would handle the magic of Joy’s ageing on screen.
A great plus point is the make-up. The characters all look very natural, with makeup done just right to make the best use of lighting and camera work available.
Once Upon A Lifetime: Overall Thoughts
Once Upon a Lifetime is a charming independent film, well written, well produced, well-acted.
The film explores how people can enter your life without reason and provide a positive impact and then suddenly vanish seemingly job done.
Its out across VOD platforms and is well worth seeking out.
The Silver Hedgehog Rating:
4
Recommended
The Script / Screenplay
🦔🦔🦔🦔
Casting
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Music / Score
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Visual Effects and Costumes
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Video Quality
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Words Garry
Editor JJ
Images David SKato
Christmas Harmony ★★★★
So if Christmas holiday films and romantic musicals are your thing, then definitely put this on your watch list - Just not to high up on it.
If you enjoy Indie films that you may also want to check out our these other reviews here on The Silver Hedgehog.
About Garry
I’ve been writing in‑depth reviews since 2020 and I’m a proud supporter of independent cinema. I’m a lifelong Sci‑Fi fan, and I probably spend far too much time photographing anything that catches my eye.
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