EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING
Director : Stella Meghie
Year : 2017
Genre : Romance
Rating : **
If you were a fan of the soppy romanticism on offer in Josh Boone's 2015 cancer-centric teen drama 'The Fault In Our Stars', then you are sure to love this equally soppy adaptation of Nicola Yoon's best selling 2015 novel 'Everything, Everything' which also focused on romance in the face of medical adversity.
Directed by Stella Meghie, this bizarrely titled film tells the story of Madeline ('The Hunger Games'' Amanda Stenberg), an 18 year old girl who suffers from SCID, an extremely rare immunodeficiency syndrome which makes her extremely susceptible to disease and infection. Her illness is so bad in fact that she is permanently kept within the walls of her opulent, super-expensive airlocked home where the airborne dangers of the outside world cannot possibly reach her. Instead she passes the time writing pithy book reviews on an internet blog - I know, sad right? - and playing phonetic Scrabble with her domineering mother (Anika Noni Rose). However, things take an unexpected turn for the reclusive Madeline when the new boy next door (Nick Robinson, the boring one from 'Jurassic World') develops a crush on the introverted teen and cute text messages quickly evolve into rather more dramatic gestures of unrequited love.
While I was no fan of the aforementioned 'The Fault In Our Stars', Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort still had enough believable chemistry to overcome the triteness of the material. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for 'Everything, Everything' which severely lacks the necessary romantic tension to keep its audience engaged in the increasingly ridiculous plot. To her credit, the beautiful and charismatic Stenberg delivers a very good performance here, perfectly encapsulating the fear and the passion of her character with a determination and skill far exceeding those of her acting contemporaries. Unfortunately, her fine work is sadly undone by a flimsy premise, consistently corny dialogue, the talents (or lack thereof) of her hunky yet bland co-star; and a stupidly contrived twist ending which sends the already absurd narrative spinning headlong into the realms of utter outrageousness.
'Everything, Everything' is yet another bad movie in a month predominantly comprised of bad movies. Nevertheless, no matter what I or any other reviewer say, there is no doubt that like 'The Fault In Our Stars', 'Me, Earl & Dying Girl' and the other terminal illness romances released before it, 'Everything, Everything' will still make a ton of money at the worldwide box office from love-starved teenage couples. Maybe the filmmakers could treat themselves to a brand new house. With an airlock.
