Everything, Everything

Maddie (Stenberg) has SCID, a rare illness that makes her very susceptible to everyday viruses our immune system has no problem battling. Because being in contact with the outside could kill her, doctor mum Pauline (Noni Rose) hasn't allowed her leave the house in eighteen years, sealing up windows, and limiting visitors to nurse Carla (de la Reguera) and her daughter. Spending her days exercising, reading, writing and taking an online architecture course, when new kid Olly (Robinson) moves in next door an infatuated Maddie longs to step outside for the first time…

Adapted from Nicola Yoon's novel Everything Everything is a sweet and soft affair, a mixture of the tragic loneliness of The Boy In The Bubble and the us-against-the-world teen romance of Endless Love. It takes a first love very seriously, worming its way into the mindset of the teenage characters and seeing the world from their point of view. Only a cynic would choke on the romantic texts they share and, when the internet is down, the written messages posted on windows; in a nice touch director Stella Meghie imagines these text sessions as face-to-face conversations taking place in the miniature diner Maddie has built in her room. When she does the same with a scene of the two floating it's not so nice.

Because it's so adamant to remain, shall we say, chaste the story ignores potentially delicious avenues that could darken and deepen the narrative. Robinson's (The Kings Of Summer, Jurassic World) Olly, who is undercooked somewhat despite displaying some Lloyd Dobler charm: his problems with his father are kept at a distance (his troubled mother doesn't get a look in) and his motives re Maddie aren't questioned. Is because it's safe for him? She will always remain locked up, untouched, pure. This idea could have at least been put to him so he could deny it.

But Meghie opts for the rather twee notion that he's her soulmate and so relegates him to making the grand romantic gestures that a teenage boy would never have the presence of mind to make, and grants him the emotional maturity needed to deal with the bizarre situation he's found himself in. He is, as Maddie points out, a prince. A fantasy. It can all get a bit Nicholas Sparks at times.

But Robinson and Amandla Stenberg (the kid from The Hunger Games) conjure up the requisite heat. Unable to touch, the rising sexual tension can't be ignored and Stenberg wonderfully manages to traverse innocence (she's always in white) and sexual adventure.