Plot: What’s it about?
I say this often, but I had zero desire to see this film. Everything, everything just didn’t look like my cup of tea based on the ads and the premise. I’ve noticed that a lot of the romantic style movies these days not only involve teenagers, but usually they’re sick with some sort of ailment. I suppose having two healthy teens at the center of a film like this just isn’t the norm any more. OK, I’m exaggerating a bit, but you get the idea. I’ve been a fan of film critic Richard Roeper for quite some time. For those unfamiliar, he’s the one who became the permanent replacement for Roger Ebert after Gene Siskel passed away. Ebert passed away a few years ago, but Roeper now does his own reviews via YouTube and his app. I don’t mean to get sidetracked here, but I bring this up, because Roeper hated this film. He gave it a near failing grade of D-. In his short video review he also went on to spoil this film. He gave fair warning to listeners to mute their audio and turn the review off. I’ll be honest, I did keep listening, thus having this film’s big twist spoiled for me. Nine times out of ten, I don’t do this, but I had no desire to see this, and he seemed so turned off by the twist that I just had to hear what upset him so much. Rest assured, you’ll get no spoilers for me here, but it is a pretty lousy twist. I don’t think it’s a deal breaker for the film, but it doesn’t help matters. Really, the twist is just one of the film’s big issues. Before I get carried away, I’ll discuss the film more below.
Maddy (Amandla Stenberg) has an immune disorder known as SCID. Basically, this prevents her from ever leaving her home. Her mother, Pauline (Anika Noni Rose) is more than a little protective of her. Only a select few even know that Maddy is alive. She’s 18, but few people with this disease live that long. Only a few are allowed inside the house as well. One day a family moves in next door, and it doesn’t take long for the young boy to fall for Maddy. Olly Bright (Nick Robinson) is the boy and at first Maddy’s mom doesn’t want her daughter to see him. Maddy eventually convinces her nurse to let Olly come inside the house and visit with her. The two of them begin texting each other and getting to know each other better. We learn about Maddy’s past and things about Olly as well. He moves quite often and we learn why. We also discover that Maddy’s brother and father died years back in a car accident. Her mother is still grieving, but Maddy never really got to know the two of them (she was still very young when they died). Eventually, Maddy and Olly both run away and travel to Hawaii together. It’s about this time that the big twist I mentioned is revealed. Again, I won’t spoil it, but it does pull the rug from under our feet. I’ll admit that if I were more invested in the film then I might’ve felt more strongly about the twist one way or the other. Really the film is just rather lousy. I was never invested in the relationship between these two characters at all. The film just didn’t work for me. There has to be a spark or some hook to keep us invested, but there isn’t one here. I was just ready for the film to end. Don’t get me started on the music heard in the film either. It’s bad!
Video: How’s it look?
It’s a very new film, so expect the usual comments from me here. The print is pristine and clean with no real issues to speak of. A lot of the film takes place inside Maddy’s home, which is very modern and clean, so expect the transfer to reflect that. Things do spruce up with the couple travels to Hawaii as well. The image is AVC encoded with a 1.85:1 ratio. It will satisfy fans.
Audio: How’s it sound?
We get a pretty standard DTS HD track. It’s mostly a talky film, but the vocals were fine. The rears kick in a times, adding to the track as well. We hear some ocean noise in the latter half of the film in Hawaii. All in all, the track does the film justice.
Supplements: What are the extras?
- Trapped in Love: The Story of Everything, Everything – A simple, straight-forward and by the book (pardon the pun) five minute look at the filming of the movie, the inspiration from the novel as well as some behind the scenes footage.
- Deleted Scenes – A fairly robust 16 minutes’ worth of deleted scenes are included, though none really add much substance to the film.
The Bottom Line
Plot twist aside, Everything, Everything is just kind of lousy. I never bought into the central romance and the premise itself is rather lame. I didn’t care about the characters at all, and the music in the film is annoying to put it mildly. Skip it.
