Mr. Movie review: ‘Everything, Everything’ offers nothing

‘Everything, Everything’

Teen romance stories must follow certain rules. First, both characters must be babes. Sometimes the female or male involved are made up to look plain but as the plot advances her beauty or his handsomeness evolve until by the climax they’re stunning.

Second, there must be conflict. In most films the girl is the conflicted person and it’s another girl in love with the guy, or the guy is a jerk and her best bud is the person the girl should be with and so on.

Everything, Everything takes a little bit different, more original approach to the dilemmas involved in teen romance.

Amandla Stenberg is Maddy. She has a rare autoimmune disease and cannot, ever, go outside.

Fortunately, her mother is a doctor and her treatment keeps her alive. Though Maddy hates being cooped up, she understands. But Maddy is a normal teenager and when cute Olly moves in next door, the irresistible force of love starts opening dangerous doors.

Olly is played by Jurassic World’s Nick Robinson. Both Stenberg and Robinson are exceptionally charismatic and it helps writer J. Mills Goodloe (the Nicholas Sparks deadly-dull flick The Best of Me) and first major movie director Stella Meghie almost pull it off.

It needs to be darker. Maddy’s controlling mom isn’t controlling or hard enough. That would have made a more interesting movie.

Also, mom and a nurse can come in from the dangerous outer world and not harm the girl but Olly cannot. That’s the biggest hole of them all.

With nowhere to go and packed with flaws, Everything, Everything is so predictable and has such an awful, and expected feel-good conclusion that it undoes what could have been a much better movie.

This story was originally published May 18, 2017 at 1:26 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie review: ‘Everything, Everything’ offers nothing."