beautiful but a bit predictable

Rating: 7/10 (17 April 2017)

I don't usually write reviews, but I feel like I need to say something about this film, even if the majority of reviews will be overwhelmingly positive. And I'm pretty terrible with these things b/c I don't have a photographic memory.
Anyhow, it's a story of boy and girl switching bodies after a cosmic event involving a comet that's never really explained. This happens a few times each week, much to the chagrin of each of our main characters and amusing fun for the supporting cast. I don't want to say much else beyond that without giving away plot details. Needless to say, they start to fall in love with each other as they're living each other's lives.
It's a beautiful film. There's one particular sequence in the middle that I absolutely loved visually.
The movie started to fall apart towards the last 30-45 minutes once it rushes to resolve a problem introduced in the latter half of the film. It feels like the film needed a bit more running time to avoid this. There's also a bunch of suspension of disbelief required...I mean I guess this is to be expected, but for me, a films starts to lose me once there's too much serendipity involved to resolve everything.
Also, I think the film would've gotten better mileage if it had gone down the bittersweet route when rushing to its end.
I left the theater liking the film, but it's not like it's the most amazing film I've ever seen (even if it broke the box office record in Japan), nor did it really leave me with tingly happy feelings like after watching some Studio Ghibli films.