Everything, Everything

Everything, Everything is a pleasant and unassuming little romantic melodrama that doesn't do a great job of plucking the heartstrings, but does its job well enough.  It also features two young and charismatic performances by Amandla Stenberg (from The Hunger Games) and Nick Robinson (Jurassic World) as the young lovers.  Even if the movie was never able to quite enthrall me, the leads at the center of the film held my attention.

The movie opens by introducing us to Maddy Whittier (Stenberg), an 18-year-old girl who has been locked away in her germ-free and immaculate home ever since she was diagnosed with a weak immune system when she was very young.  The disease is known as SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency), and it's a rare genetic problem that forces her to stay away from the outside world, as simple everyday germs could kill her instantly.  Maddy has lived this way her whole life, and has learned to make the best of it.  She chats with friends on line, reads a lot of books, and writes reviews of them.  She also likes to build models of places that she would love to visit, but knows she cannot, such as libraries.  The only people who she ever has some kind of contact with are her overly protective mother (Broadway veteran Anika Noni Rose), and her doting nurse, Carla (Ana De La Reguera).

One day, while Maddy is looking out her bedroom window, she happens to see a young boy moving into the house next door with his family.  This is Olly (Robinson), and there is an instant attraction.  Since their bedroom windows are across from each other, they start writing messages and texting each other.  Rather than simply just show the two characters conversing on their phones, director Stella Meghie does some clever and imaginative ways to display their conversations.  We'll see Maddy and Olly inhabiting one of her models, having a normal conversation sitting across a table from each other.  Eventually, Carla figures out Maddy's fascination with the boy, and arranges a secret face-to-face meeting while the mother is away, inviting him inside.  This brings about one of the film's funnier moments, where the two young kids are awkwardly flirting and talking to each other, while subtitles underneath them express their inner thoughts and embarrassment over how they don't know what to say to each other.

This is the strength of Everything, Everything.  I found both of the kids and the actors playing them extremely likable.  They have an easy chemistry, and a very laid back charm.  Fortunately, the movie takes advantage of this, and gives them plenty of opportunities to be together.  There are not very many distracting subplots, and even though Maddy's mother does eventually find out about their relationship and is not happy about it, she does not suddenly become a villain bent on destroying their love.  She is acting out of concern, not as an antagonist.  The movie does begin to slip just a little during its middle and climactic portions.  The mid section is devoted to Maddy running away from home, health concerns be-damned, and going on a luxury Hawaiian vacation that seems a bit elaborate even if a kid was able to have their own private credit card.  Finally, there is a third act twist that is not only easy to see coming, but is just not quite as emotionally effective as it should be.

Even when the movie seems dangerously close to losing its way, the two leads are able to keep it grounded, and avoid causing it to go into all-out stupidity.  They are the reason for anyone who is not a fan of the Young Adult book by Nicola Yoon that inspired the film to watch this.  Stenberg and Robinson are able to portray the strong and sometimes uncontrollable feelings of first love, without making these characters insufferable or sappy.  These are supposed to be smart kids, and the performances are able to reflect that.  And save for the film's final moments, the movie just seems very quiet and avoids staged melodrama.  There is a simple honesty here that we don't see in a lot of teen romances.  The movie doesn't even make a big deal out of the fact that the lovers are an interracial couple, which is a nice change of pace.

Everything, Everything is not a great movie, but it shows some intelligence both in its two leads and in its casting.  The movie is probably as safe and sterile as the home that Maddy is forced to live in for most of the story, but it never bothered me as much as I thought it would.  In fact, I found the whole thing kind of charming.

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