Bubble romance

On its surface, Everything, Everything, based on Nicola Yoon’s book by the same name, is a cutesy story about a sickly teen girl’s first romance. But underneath boils a seeming plot to undermine parental authority.

Not long after her father and brother died when she was an infant, Maddy (Amandla Stenberg) was diagnosed with severe combined immunodeficiency. Any foreign bacteria or virus could prove fatal, her busy, emotionally distant mother (Anika Noni Rose), a doctor, reminds her. Maddy has never stepped outside her luxurious but hermetically sealed home.

Olly (Nick Robinson) moves in next door with baggage of his own, an abusive father. Much of the film consists of Olly and Maddy getting to know each other through text messages. Yawn. To avoid smothering viewers with on-screen text bubbles, director Stella Meghie portrays many of the teens’ conversations as face-to-face encounters in Maddy’s imagination: a nice touch, but still—yawn.

Early in the film, Maddy mentions she’s just turned 18—likely a tip to viewers that her character is legal for the ensuing sensuality. (Olly never mentions his age.) An implied sex scene earns the film its PG-13 rating. Their conversation is mostly innocent, but the camera isn’t. Clad in tight-fitting white garments, Maddy monopolizes screen time. Olly’s a shining knight in black T-shirt and pants.

Maddy has always dreamed of setting foot in the ocean; Olly can help there. She’s never kissed a boy; Olly to the rescue. (Fancy that.) So, it’s a foregone conclusion that Olly can enable Maddy’s escape.

Parents make mistakes, but the film’s lone plot twist seems designed to send a more hostile message: The deadliest childhood disease is a parent who won’t allow her daughter to liberate herself on her own terms.