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Alternatives
Movie Review –
Everything, Everything (2017)
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Illness
Duration: 96 Minutes
Directed By: Stella Meghie
Starring: Amandla Stenberg, Nick Robinson
A teenager who’s lived a sheltered life because she’s allergic to everything, falls for the boy who moves in next door.
Reaction
Be advised that I have not read Everything, Everything but I went in knowing how the book ended re: “plot twist”.
I’m going to preface this whole review with the good first: this film is a cute fluffy romp of young love and taking “risks” (which I will not go into depth about how that is a dubious teaching lesson is considering the twist itself). Everything that I disliked about this film has to be discussed with no filters, and so it will be down below.
At least the dialogue was an acceptable level of cringe.
Casting
I cannot say Amandla was perfect for this role having not read the book but what I can say is that I think she delivered a solid performance.
Nick revisits a similar character type we have previously seen him in re: Jurassic World adn The 5th Wave — and that’s all I can really say. He’s got that cool-but-not-cool dopey-looking lanky boy next door vibes going on. Does it fit this role? I guess.
Mom was meh; the nurse was meh; friend was meh.
Mainly because her mother’s character arc is not explored through the adventurous escapades in Maddy “living”. (Don’t even get me staaaarted with that disability = not living nonsense).
At least they didn’t always wear their shoes indoors….
Thoughts That May Contain Spoilers
I have problems with the contemporary world building in Everything.
- Not even the most rudimentary scene where her mom/nurse walks into house (from the outside), places their bag down, receives a cleanse from invisible antimicrobial mist etc. only to proceed to pick up that same bag that was from the outside and head in. Okay.
- For a house that’s built with so much high-tech gizmos, I am pleasantly surprised there is no laser force-field or something that protects outsiders from intruding (see: Olly essentially trespassing and taping photos to her window).
- Moreover, the fact that her mother deals with her PTSD et al., as she does, it doesn’t explain the need for over protection to the extent of having laser robotic cats or something idk
- I cannot fathom the ease to which she has the monetary capabilities to be able to register and receive a credit card for her to spend willy nilly and/or the quick scene-change in her leaving home to suddenly being able to board a plane. Nice passport.
- The whole “twist” thing was so watered down in delivery. Like…I heard in the book that the mom is more well-reasoned to do what she did but it just felt so thin in the film.
- The fact that no one in the world would be curious as to how she’s doing and/or check up on Maddy save for her magical mother with the cure-all of doing nothing.
- Nick’s hair…
- Man, it’s just the whole “experience life for one day” garbage that would seem quite damaging to me. I don’t know. I can’t say for sure because I don’t have, or know of anyone who has, the illnesses as described in this story. But just that logic itself — although nice sentiments — is dangerous, maaaaan.
- How to rent car scene to drive random places.
- The fact that it takes romance/a boy to get her out of the home after the entirety of your life? Damnit.
- More thoughts to come? Who knows…
Afterthoughts
I would like to thank Indigo Books & Music for passing along screening tickets to see this two weeks early (granted, I am delayed in getting this review to you). But anyways.
It was nice hearing Nicola speak about her book (she seems like a lovely lady) and Meghle outlining some of her process bringing this film to life. Also heard the book signing previous to this was bad but I didn’t go to that.
Have you seen or read Everything, Everything or want to see the film?
Cheers,
Joey
connect:
afterthoughtAn // twitter
anotherafterthought // goodreads
picturevomit // instagram
thoughts and afterthoughts. 
I haven’t read the book nor does the movie sound really all that appealing but I’m curious on what the plot twits was.
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I could tell if you really wanted to know haha. It’s definitely one of those cute summer-y movies that you can just play in the background while you do other things. Most of the dialogue was cringe but some of it was witty, I found.
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I read it and it irritated me a bit. If I thought about it just in terms of the love story, it was fine. But when I think about it from a logistical standpoint, and then with the twist, just ugh. I enjoyed the read as it was a departure from the heavy current issue novels I’ve be reading lately. I don’t think I’ll pay to see the movie in theaters.
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Yeah, this Everything seems to break every single logistical plot point that should be a hurdle to moving the story forward, but hey, fiction! I think I’d be quite mad had I read this book with the “twist”; I would imagine I’d be very “….wat? they…wat…?”
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LOL this movie. I kind of want to watch it to compare to the book. Basically everything you listed were the thoughts I had when I was reading, especially when it came to the house not truly being allergy-preventative. AND OMG RENTING CARS. YOU GOTTA BE OVER 18 TO RENT A CAR AND ALSO HAVE A DRIVER’S LICENSE FOR AT LEAST 3 YEARS AND YES I HAVE DONE EXTENSIVE RESEARCH ON THIS.
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Yeah, i was watching EE and as things happened, I turned to the person next to me (another blogger) and was like “ARE THEY FOR REAL??!” I am the best/worst.
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Yeah, that’s pretty much how I felt about the book. The ending made me livid.
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i can imagine. Although I would think the film version of how they spun the twist really dampened the impact of it as a whole; it felt less important in the film version to me (not that I read it but it seemed more fulfilling in the book — so I’ve heard).
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I haven’t heard much about the movie so far, but like with most adaptations I can imagine that it really doesn’t get a lot of the book’s complexities and nuances across and the plot could feel more flimsy because of it. I definitely want to still see it at some point, but I’m going with not expecting too much.
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When speaking to readers post-film about how they tackled it, I think a large chunk of the twist that was wholly omitted (which…okay, I get because time constraints) but to dilute such an integral part of the story…I don’t know.
Yeah, I’d definitely class EE as one of those movies you can play in the background and do other things (while fully absorbing the film). Hope you enjoy nonetheless!
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