Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Everything, Everything Blu-ray Movie Review

The Girl in the (Bursting) Plastic Bubble

Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 15, 2017

Everything, Everything is a filmed adaptation of a successful "young adult" romance by Nicola Yoon. It is the second feature helmed by Canadian director Stella Meghie.

Seventeen-year-old Maddy Whittier (Amandla Stenberg) has spent her entire life encased in a spotless and hermetically sealed home to protect her from a rare condition known as SCID, or "severe combined immunodeficiency". SCID leaves the body vulnerable to infections that the rest of us shrug off on a daily basis. Maddy's fiercely protective mother, Pauline (Anika Noni Rose), is a widowed doctor who oversees her care, aided by a nurse, Carla (Ana de la Reguera), who visits daily and whose daughter, Rosa (Danube Hermosillo), is Maddy best friend.

As she approaches her eighteenth birthday, Maddy's interest is captured by Olly Bright (Nick Robinson), a shaggy teenage boy who moves in next door with his family. The pair begin a tentative romance through their facing bedroom windows, which graduates to texting and eventually, with Carla's covert aid, in-person visits. Maddy conceals their relationship from her mother, but Dr. Pauline inevitably learns the truth and imposes draconian restrictions on Maddy's access to phones and the internet. The film's third act takes an unexpectedly dark turn that could fairly be described as gothic, after Maddy defies her mother by sneaking away with Olly for a Hawaiian vacation, where she fulfills her life's dream of experiencing the ocean firsthand. (She also experiences other life-altering experiences.)

Director Meghie effectively dramatizes Maddy's and Olly's halting romance by staging their text exchanges as imaginary face-to-face encounters set in life-size versions of the architectural models that Maddy builds as part of her home-schooling. The film relies on the appeal of its two leads to skate over gaps in Olly's back story and, more importantly, in the fragmentary exposition of the precautions imposed by Maddy's mother to protect her from disease. (How exactly do the doctor and Carla disinfect themselves before entering Molly's domain? Anyone who comes from the outside world would be a human petri dish.) Maddy's condition is an intriguing, if extreme, metaphor for teenage alienation, as well as for a parent's instinctive desire to shield a child from harm. But the metaphor would be stronger if the specifics of Maddy's circumscribed existence were conveyed as effectively as the explanation of her compromised immune system (which is illustrated by an amusing animation).

Everything, Everything Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shot digitally by Igor Jadue-Lillo (The Kids Are All Right), Everything, Everything arrives on a 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray from Warner that features all the usual virtues of digital capture: sharp and detailed imagery, solid blacks, good contrast and an absence of noise, aliasing or interference. The average bitrate of 33.89 Mbps helps ensure a superior presentation.

Everything, Everything Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's 5.1 soundtrack, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, effectively distinguishes between Maddy's isolated habitat, where her voiceover is often the dominant sound, and the alien environments into which she gradually ventures, where birds chirp in the surrounds and a dip in the ocean is as immersive sonically as it is physically. Ludwig Göransson (Creed) supplied the gently aching score, and the soundtrack is punctuated by contemporary pop selections.

Everything, Everything Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trapped in Love: The Story of Everything, Everything (1080p; 1.78:1: 5:03).



• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 1.78:1; 16:15): Not separately listed or selectable, but each is preceded by a title card.
• Pauline Gives Maddy a Birthday Cake
• Maddy and Rosa Talk About Olly
• Mr. Waterman Enters House
• Maddy Imagines Olly in the House (extended)
• Pauline & Carla Talk About Maddy
• Maddy Watches Olly Go Home
• Maddy Video Chats with Rosa, Sees Olly with Another Girl
• Maddy and Olly on Plane After Flight
• Morning in Hotel Room, Olly Is Hungry
• Pauline Works on Computer, Maddy Takes Her Temperature
• Maddy Watches Olly's Dad Drive Away
• Maddy at Carla's House
• Pauline Walks out of House, Through Airlock



• Introductory Trailers: Pure Country Pure Heart and the usual Warner promo for 4K discs.

Everything, Everything Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Everything, Everything was a box office success, relative to its modest cost, and this superior Blu-ray treatment should win it further fans. Recommended for teens and also for hopeless romantics of any age.