Teen risks ‘Everything’ for love
For someone raised in a “bubble,” unable to be out in the world because of a rare medical condition, Maddy (Amandla Stenberg), the 18-year-old heroine of “Everything, Everything,” is remarkably well adjusted and optimistic.
Supervised by her widowed doctor mom Pauline (Anika Noni Rose, “The Good Wife”), Maddy is smart, well educated, a voracious reader and seemingly minus the emotional highs and lows that might be expected of a romantic teenager.
Maddy’s only companion is longtime nurse Carla (Ana de la Reguera), who along with her daughter are among the very few cleared to enter this hermetically sealed apartment.
Everything changes — and this is when “Everything” quickly gets into gear — with the arrival next door of handsome, curious, teenage Olly (Nick Robinson, “Jurassic World”).
Olly, it turns out, is dealing with serious issues at home, but when he sees Maddy through her window, a spark is ignited.
For these two, it’s simple — they both are eager to discover the other.
For Pauline, this is the time for an emphatic lesson in “Mother knows best” as she attempts to break up a romance that has so many obstacles.
Adapted from Nicola Yoon’s young adult bestseller by J. Mills Goodloe (the marvelous “The Age of Adaline”) and directed by Stella Meghie, “Everything, Everything” sparkles with its interracial cast, but its focus is not race but relationships.
Maddy learns, as all teenagers must, to trust her own instincts. If she is to grow up, even in this restricted aquarium-like jewel that is all she knows, ultimately she must rebel to find out who she really is.
Stenberg, who years back as a child had a key role in the first “Hunger Games,” easily conveys Maddy’s smarts, vulnerabilities and naivete.
While “Everything” is all about Maddy’s journey, with its promises, surprises and shocks, Stenberg’s is hardly a solo show.
Robinson has just the right amount of ardor while de la Reguera carries the quiet resignation of an adult who knows who’s the boss here.
That would be Pauline — and Rose easily skirts that delicate balance of being authority figure, companion, friend and disciplinarian.
(“Everything, Everything” has burgeoning sexuality, adult themes and a spectacular apartment setting.)