Everything Everything wasn’t Everything

Maddy just turned 18 and has never ventured outside her environmentally controlled house. Her clothes are serialized and all white. Everyone that enters the house must change shoes and wash their hands before being let in. This is because Maddy has a rare immunodeficiency called SCID. Despite being an avid reader, online book reviewer, and loving to design architecture and drawing, Maddy claims her life is pretty boring. She relies a lot on her extensive imagination. But Maddy’s only interactions are with her mom and her nurse, until the cute boy moves in next door.

Olly wears all black and has a bad boy exterior, but despite his appearance is really kind at heart. And from the moment he notices Maddy through the window he tries to meet her. Only trouble is, no one new is allowed to enter the house, because they might get Maddy sick.

From the point Olly enters the picture, his interactions with Maddy are extremely endearing. He tries every possible way to connect with her without actually physically being in the same room. There’s everything from some animated adventures with a Bundt cake out the window to writing his number in pen on his window so Maddy can text him. After their initial reactions, Olly continues to be sweet, trying to get to know Maddy, make her happy, and make her laugh. And when she gets grounded, Olly even plasters pictures of the ocean all over her front window which is the one thing Maddy wants to see one day.

While the relationship that builds between Olly and Maddy is adorable and fun to watch develop, the movie as a whole has some pacing problems. It dragged a bit in places, and while they took some creative licenses with how they communicate with each other and rolled it into Maddy’s imagination so it felt like they were in the same room, the story still needed a boost of energy. While watching their love grow was cute, at times it felt like the story was missing something. And when the big twist at the end was revealed, it left me more angry then interested in the remainder of the story.

Overall the acting was good, but EVERYTHING EVERYTHING moved too slowly to maintain my full attention. If you like endearing romances this may be for you, but I’m not sure there’s a huge appeal for broader audiences. And skip the deleted scenes. There’s a reason they were deleted.