Everything, Everything

Eighteen-year-old Maddy lives a comfortable but confined existence inside her house, trapped by an incurable disease that prevents her going outside. Cared for at home by her mother and nurse, her life changes with the arrival of Olly, the new boy next door.

Based on the best-selling young-adult novel of the same name, ‘Everything, Everything’ has its heart in the right place. As a romantic teen drama, it is more a parable than a hard hitting drama. Whilst the science of Maddy’s susceptable-to-everything condition doesn’t survive close scrutiny, this is a teen fairytale that concentrates on the choices its protagonists make and the implications they have on those around them.

Charming and affecting by turn…

Charming and affecting by turn, ‘Everything, Everything’ doesn’t have the grit of ‘Love Story’ – the original boy-meets-girl medical movie template. What it does have though, are committed performances and occasionally sly dialogue which breathes genuine interest into its characters, whom (in other hands) might have felt more cardboard than colourful.

Bathed in bright colours and with an engagingly light approach to Maddy’s cocooned life ‘Everything, Everything’ doesn’t have the heft or realism of a mainstream drama – but that said, it isn’t soft TV movie fare either.  Like it’s main character it’s caught between two worlds, and whilst this teen romance might not be high on your cinematic dance card, it will certainly hold your interest until the end, should you find yourself in its company.