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by Sandra Olmsted

Director Stella Meghie revisits the drama and romance of a child with no immune system made popular with John Travolta’s 1976 protrayal of The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976) and repeated by Jake Gyllenhaal’s comic turn in Bubble Boy (2001). The big difference in Meghie’s filmis that the bubble-wrapped child is played by an actress this time, instead of an actor. Amandla Stenberg plays Maddy Whittier, an eighteen-year-old girl who can never leave her hermetically-sealed, highly-sanitized home, and Nick Robinson plays Olly Bright, the tempting boy who moves in next door.

Even though a nurse and an overprotective mother stand between them, Maddy’s desire to experience the world and Olly’s love-at-first-sight affection are very powerful. Maddy has yet to be awakened to the world and her own desires to grow up, and Stenberg plays her as a compliant and obedient child in the beginning of the film. Maddy follows the orders and requirements of her mother Paulina (Anika Noni Rose), a doctor, her nurse Carla (Ana de la Reguera), and occasionally Rosa’s daughter are allowed inside the house.

Then the Bright family moves in next door, and Olly and younger sister bring over a bundt cake which Pauline must reject, of course. Olly, however, has seen Maddy through his bedroom window which conveniently faces her bedroom window. While Maddy may seem at first the most vulnerable of the two, Olly has problems of his own. His father’s drinking and abusive behaviors has cause the family many problems, oddly apparently none of them financial.

With both teens trapped in isolating worlds and lives out of their control, it is easy to see why they are attracted to each other. At one point, Maddy witnesses Olly being abused by his father and runs outside to make sure he is okay, which tips mother off to their love growing between them. Pauline also figures out the Carla has conspired to let the two spend time together. After Maddy’s trip outside she becomes ill and agrees to end her relationship with Olly; however she can’t shake her desire to experience the world and love at any cost. Will her next adventure outside the safehaven her mother has created for her, be her last?

Meghie mixing in a bit of Romeo and Juliet drama makes the film appealing to melodramatic side of teenagers, and the film is sweet and unpretentious. The performances carry the film well, and Stenberg could have a future in films.The film moves along at a reasonable pace and has appropriate plot twists, but none that haven’t been used by this subgenre of teen romance. The metaphor of the over-protected daughter and attractive boyfriend material next door will resonate with the target audience of teenage girls.

A Warner Bros. release, Everything, Everything is Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and brief sensuality and runs 96 minutes. Everything, Everything is in theaters now.

http://everythingeverythingmovie.com/

Amandla Stenberg plays Maddy Whittier while Nick Robinson plays Olly Bright in Director Stella Meghie’s Everything, Everything; in theatres now.

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