EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING
US, 2017, 91 minutes, Colour.
Amandla Stenberg, Nick Robinson, Anika Noni Rose, and Ana de la Reguera.
Directed by Stella Megghie.
Everything, Everything is something of a contemporary fairytale. It is set in affluent California where money seems to be no object and so everything is possible.
The film also dramatises inter-racial themes but does not draw attention to them explicitly, leaving the audience to accept the realities.
The film is very much geared to feminine sensibility, director, the original Young Adult novel by Nicola Yoon, as well as most of the central characters. Female audiences, older and younger will be able to identify with the characters, and young male audiences should find Nick Robinson’s Olly sympathetic.
The initial voice-over comes from a teenager, 17 turning 18, Madeline, Maddy, played with some charm by Amandla Stenberg. We learn immediately that she is confined to her home and has been since she was a young child, diagnosed with a severe auto immune deficiency. She cannot go out, has lived inside the house, relating to her mother who is also a doctor and cares for her and a visiting nurse who sometimes brings her little daughter. Otherwise Maddy has no communication outside but has a greater yearning, as indicated in the opening credits where, in her imagination, she looks through the glass window and it breaks and she steps through and then floats in a pool.
Some audiences may remember the John Travolta television movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. Other moviegoers may recall the plot of a lesser-known farcical comedy, Bubble Boy, with a young Jake Gylenhaal who has been confined to a plastic bubble in the house, not allowed to go out, cared for with ultra-attention by his mother. It played on comedy. This scenario is much more serious.
One day Maddy notices a family arriving next door, especially the teenage son of the family, Olly, Nick Robinson. He and his sister bring a bunt cake as a neighbourly gift but Maddy’s mother rejects it. However, beginning with eye contact and waves, the two begin to communicate, especially when he holds up a page from the window with his mobile phone number and the communication begins.
While we know that Maddy would like to get out of the house but is apprehensive about her condition, we don’t quite know what is going to happen in terms of this teenage attraction and relationship.
We might guess that at some stage Maddy and Olly will meet and that Maddy’s mother will not be best pleased. Then, will Maddy go out of the house, risking her health for Olly’s sake, testing out how ill she is or not?
As the film goes on, it seems less and less plausible in terms of realistic action, especially in the character of the mother and her motivation and love for her daughter, in Maddy’s motivations for decisions and the consequences.
Yes, there have been some teenage stories of romance where the heroine actually dies, so throughout the film we are actually open to whether the love story is one of happiness or one of doom. So, no spoilers in this review.
1. A teenage story? Family story? Love story? Mixed race themes but the screenplay not emphasising this?
2. The title, Maddy and her wanting everything, the situation in the house, upbringing, desires?
3. The location of the home, affluent, the details of the interiors, the view from the street? The outside world – seen through the glass? The world experienced online? The contrast with Hawaii, the plane trip, the hotel, the beach, jumping from the cliff? The hospital sequences?
4. The musical score, the songs reflecting the characters and action?
5. The credibility of the plot, Maddy’s situation, in an affluent world where money was no object? The touch of the fairytale in contemporary America?
6. Maddy, telling his story, 17 turning 18? Looking at the glass, the symbolism of its breaking, going out, floating in the water?
7. The situation, her relationship with her mother, her care, the mother is a doctor, supervising? Carla as a nurse, friendship, her daughter? Maddy inside for all the years, her life, her studies, reading, clothes, visits?
8. Seeing Olly, he and his sister arriving with the gift of the cake, the mother refusing politely? The two waving to each other? His phone number? The communication, real and fantasy, the imagination of the conversation the diner, talk, telling their stories?
9. Carla, friendship with Maddy, Maddy pleading for the visits? Olly coming into the house? Not touching, the effect of the real-life talk?
10. Olly and his sister, their mother, the father and the glimpses of his brutality? Assaulting Olly, Maddy going out, his concern, her mother’s concern? Her surviving well enough?
11. Maddie’s mother, her character, the past, the death of her husband and son, the photos? The declarations of love?
12. Finding out the truth, the confrontation with Carla, dismissing her? Nurse Janet and her regulations and severity?
13. Maddy and her illness, studying online, her decision, going out, the note for her mother? Buying the plane tickets online? Persuading Olly to take her, the airport, the car and the exhilaration, wanting to go faster, the plane trip, the hotel, shopping, the swimming gear, going to the beach, swimming, floating, the exhilaration of the jump, the night together, the bed, the
sexual experience?
14. The collapse, illness, going to the hospital, her mother coming, questioning Olly’s sister, her concern?
15. The return, at home, the stopping more communication, Olly’s concern that she was okay, he and the family leaving? Secretly?
16. The phone call from a doctor in Hawaii, her diagnosis, Maddy searching for the documents, confronting her mother, the plausibility of the truth and her mother’s possessiveness? Wanting her mother to leave? Maddy explaining her mother’s motivation, wanting to love her? Trying to love her?
17. Going to New York, meeting Olly at the bookstore, the romantic run through the city?
18. A romantic fairytale – plausibility for the truth?
