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.