Review: Everything, Everything (2017)

Since my last review, the world has been overtaken with a pandemic known as COVID-19, that has caused thousands of people to die, and now everyone has been legally forced to stay inside to try and avoid catching it. My last review was published less than two weeks ago.

What a time to be alive.

I considered for a moment, that perhaps I should take this time to write a series of reviews on lighthearted films to distract my readers from the disasters unfolding outside in our world right now.

But of course, I'm not that kind. No escapism here folks.

Instead, today we'll be looking at Everything, Everything, a film that follows the life of a girl who is forced to spend each and every day stuck inside her house due to illness. Sound like familiar? It should be the premise for each one of our lives right now. If it's not, and you still have to go out for work, then I applaud you for getting on with life in this horrible time, and implore you to please stay as safe as you can.

Without further ado, let me explain the full premise of Everything, Everything.

Based on the book of the same name by Nicola Yoon, Everything, Everything follows sick teen Madeleine "Maddy" Whittier, played by Amandla Stenberg. Maddy has SCID, an illness which, according to the film, means she is vulnerable to any bacteria and diseases in the outside world, so she must stay inside where the air is constantly filtered, and she has her mum and her live-in nurse looking after her. One day, as she watches the world from her window, Maddy sees Olly (Nick Robinson) moving in next door. The pair strike up a friendship -and potential romance- over text. With Olly outside, waiting for her, Maddy wants to meet him. What will happen if she dares to leave her house?

To begin with, I have read Yoon's book, and I was not a fan of it. The writing style, while creative, unique and very quick to read, wasn't to my taste, I didn't particularly care for the main character, and thought the ending was rushed with a twist I was less than impressed with. So, if I wasn't a fan of the book, surely I couldn't have enjoyed this film?

Well, yes and no. In terms of adaptations, this one is incredibly loyal to the source material. Aside from changing the race of Maddy's father, and cutting a scene where Maddy sees Olly with another girl, everything that happens is pretty much identical to how it occurs in the book. It's nice to see a film being loyal to the source material. However, that does mean that a lot of problems I had with the book are also to be found here in the film.

While I did prefer the film to the book, the best I can say about this film is that it's fine. It's a perfectly average teen chick-flick, with two charming, talented leads who have nice chemistry together, as rather bland characters, in a film without much plot.

I found Maddy more likeable here than I did in the book, and that's probably because Amandla Stenberg is a beautiful young woman who is able to hand in a solid performance. However, the problem I had with Maddy in the book is the same as the problem I have with her here: she has no personality beyond her relationship with Olly.

Oh, Olly has very little personality either, beyond being a likeable boy who lives in an abusive household. Olly and Maddy both have damage, and it seems to be the only thing they talk to each other about. It really shouldn't be though.

The audience is presented with all the things Maddy does inside, yet neither she nor we are supposed to care about them. She makes impressive set sculptures, reads a lot and keeps a book review blog, is an excellent artist, enjoys films, baking and watching animal videos on the internet. There are a couple of times when Olly texts Maddy to ask what she's up to, and she'll tell him one of the above mentioned things. Instead of quizzing her about the thing she's working on, or asking for a photo of any of these cool projects (like I would hope most people would) he changes the subject to ask her what she would like to do if she went outside, or will ask her something about being stuck inside.

Everything, Everything makes out that Maddy being stuck inside is a horrible thing, and it definitely is, but I wish there had been some understanding of the fact that she has built her entire world indoors. It would have been quite nice to see Olly want to be a part of that in some way, or at least be compassionate about her interests to an extent.

To compare it with a similar yet superior film, in the teen drama film The Fault in Our Stars, the protagonist Hazel doesn't get to go outside often or meet a lot of people because she has cancer. Yet, she still has character. She has feelings about her condition, what it means to her and her parents. She enjoys bad reality shows, and has an obsession with a niche book, which becomes a part of the plot and her overall character arc. She has this as well as her love interest Gus, and I believe those two characters work well because they are well-developed individuals. I would be interested in both Hazel and Gus in their own separate stories, if they had never met. I'm barely interested in Maddy and Olly together. We don't see Maddy being as excited about anything as Hazel is, yet her home life, her interests, are arguably more interesting and luxurious than what Hazel has in TFIOS.

In Olly's defence, Maddy never asks him about his hobbies, or what it's like to go to school and be with other people their age either. That seems odd to me. If she wants to know what the world outside of her house is like, why doesn't she want to get to know that world through him, someone she cares about?

I digress. I don't like how Maddy tries to push Olly away a few times throughout the film, as it seems unfair and harsh against him. However, the portrayal of it here seemed more justifiable than it did in the book, and Maddy's likeability was able to remain a bit more intact than I felt it did in the book.

There's an implied sex scene, but I thought this was awkwardly handled, and unrealistic in that it had no repercussions afterwards for the two characters it featured.

The downside of having read the book first is that I knew the plot twist was coming. I still didn't like it, and it still felt very rushed and confused. Where Maddy ends up as a result of it isn't entirely clear, and that's a bit concerning for an eighteen year old who had never been outdoors before.

Plot and characters aside, let's talk about the aesthetic choices for this film, because I found them quite odd. There's a scene in the opening of the film where Maddy explains to us via narration how her condition works. This is presented to us through a cartoon, which is in an art style that we never see again (even though we see more of Maddy's art in the film, and this doesn't match that), and therefore, it doesn't fit the film.

The main conflict I had in terms of style this film has comes down to the astronaut scenes. Whenever Maddy makes a new set piece sculpture (such as a library, bar or supermarket), she always places a tiny white astronaut inside and says she feels like the astronaut. Except the analogy of why she feels like the astronaut isn't very good or well explained. Somehow though, this astronaut becomes a recurring character in Maddy's imagination. The astronaut has no personality, it doesn't serve as a guide for anything she does, or as a metaphor. The figurine doesn't seem to hold any emotional connection or value for Maddy, so I don't understand why it's there, other than to show she is a little quirky. I spent all of this film trying to work out what the astronaut meant. Does Maddy have a deeper connection to it that we're not seeing? Is its helmet going to be taken off to reveal an important person in Maddy's life? Is it a metaphor for someone missing in her life?

Nope. It's just a random astronaut, and I truly cannot make it connect to anything here.

Maddy and Olly's main form of communication for a lot of the film is text and email. This can be difficult to translate onscreen because a) the technology often looks fake and takes the viewer out of the film and b) the audience would rather see two characters interact than read what they say to each other. So, what do you do?

This film decides to have fantasy sequences, where the pair meet inside the different sets Maddy makes, while the astronaut walks around in the background.

While I appreciate the creativity of the idea, this doesn't work for two main reasons. First of all, by seeing Maddy and Olly in these settings together, it desensitises the audience for when the couple actually do meet for the first time. The moment doesn't feel as big as it should do, because we've already seen them sitting with each other and chatting very casually. Perhaps if these scenes were entirely based in Maddy's fantasy, it would make a little more sense, but because the dialogue they share in those scenes comes from their real text exchanges, it feels like they've already met.

Secondly, this film is a drama, and is otherwise filmed as such. The way this film is shot is well done and aesthetically pleasing, but it's not extraordinary in any way, nor should it be, because our attention should solely be on the uniqueness of Maddy's situation. The astronaut/set piece scenes completely take us out of this mood, and do not fit at all with anything else in this film. It just feels bizarre and clunky, like their were two contrasting directors for this film, instead of just the one there actually was.

It is definitely worth noting that the portrayal of Maddy's SCID has been met with backlash, as it is apparently inaccurate. I would actually like to defend the film here, as there is a plot-based reason for this, (however, my reason for defence is also part of the backlash, so I would recommend researching this and making your own opinion if you're interested). Although, I will say that there should have been a bit more information given to us about the condition. Maddy spends a lot of time on her computer, but we're really expected to believe she's never Googled it (not that we see at least) to try and understand more about herself? This could have led to some really interesting discussion between Maddy and her mum, or Maddy and her nurse. Additionally, Maddy is part of a support group for other young adults with SCID, who talk via webcam every now and then. We learn nothing about these kids, Maddy only mentions them in the one scene they're shown in. It seems odd to me that Maddy believes she has superior social skills to them, when she has only ever interacted with her mum, her nurse and her nurse's daughter face-to-face before. I wish at least one of these teens was a genuine friend of hers, I think it could have been interesting for her to compare her SCID with someone else who has it.

Overall, Everything, Everything feels a bit rushed and doesn't always feel like it knows what it wants to be, but it's perfectly fine. Watch it if you like, but know that there are much better and far more memorable films out there about illness and being kept inside.

THE SCOREBOARD

Chick Flick Check List Elements: 1, 4, 8, 13, 42, 46, 47, 51, 53, 54, 57, 59, 62.

Total: 13

Is this really a chick flick or will men like it too? Chick flick

Would I recommend this film? No. Not because it's bad, I just don't think it's good enough to warrant recommendation. However, if you've read this review and think it's something that you

Quote of the film: "I'm not choosing death. It's that if I don't go, I won't really know what it's like to be alive." - Maddy

Film rating: 5/10