"Everything, Everything" Review - Unrealistic and romanced portrayals of Disability

In truth, as I grew up I tended to avoid films or novels that featured a disabled protagonist - not because I didn't want to see these characters in fiction, but what I saw I disliked for quite some time. Only recently have writers actually developed characters as fleshed out individuals

One of the earliest films I remember seeing was the Irish- comedy Inside I'm Dancing (2004) which I actually enjoyed, the characters felt fleshed out and the themes were tackled well. I thought The Fault In Our Stars (2014) also portrayed the themes of disability within its three main characters really well. Another example which I thought was a more believable portrayal of disability was You Before Me (2016), even the themes in that particular situation and the controversial themes were believable for that certain disability. However, in my teenage years, I read the Gives Light books by Rosa Christo - which told the story of a young mute teenager developing a friendship and romantic relationship with a Native American teenager, who is also the son of the murderer of the protagonist's mother. The first three books tackled disability, interracial relationships, homosexuality, PTSD and sexuality - however, the fourth book had a huge time jump with one massive change: the hero was no longer disabled.

I've seen this in more books than films, but for some reason authors tend to believe that the only way for a hero or heroine to have a happily-ever-after is for their character to be cured of their disability or die. Both are highly unrealistic or just ridiculous.

So which brings us to my review of Everything, Everything (2017) and the novel by Nicola Yoon.

So "Everything, Everything" follows the the story of the relationship between 18-year-old Maddy Whittier (Amandla Stenberg), who can't leave her home because of a rare illness, and the new boy-next-door Olly Bright (Nick Robinson). When Olly moves into the neighbourhood, the pair begin messaging each other and Maddy's nurse Carla (Ana de la Reguera) decides to help him sneak in to see her. But when her mum (Anika Noni Rose) finds out she fires Carla and forbids Maddy from seeing Olly again. Desperate to see the world and to be with Olly, Maddy disobeys her mother and goes on an adventure with him in search of all the things she's missed out on in her life. But will her body allow her to finally fulfil her dreams?

In short, putting your life and health at risk because a hot person moves in next door is totally fine....

On a slightly more positive note, Amanda Stenberg, Nick Robinson and Anika Noni Rose were absolutely brilliant in their respective roles and the fact this story had diverse characters was refreshing, the real let down here was the writing and representation of disability - in the novel and the film.

Maddy's character is diagnosed with SCID: "Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) is the name given to a group of rare, inherited disorders that cause major abnormalities of the immune system. They form part of a larger group of conditions known as primary immunodeficiencies. The immune system abnormalities in SCID lead to greatly increased risks of infection and other complications that are life-threatening. Affected infants become unwell within the first few months of life, and before modern medication and treatments were available, most affected babies did not survive beyond their first year. Today, doctors understand much more about SCID. Treatment is now available that can reduce the risk of serious infection, and in many cases, cure the disorder."

However, in this story, even though Maddy's mother is a doctor and she is treated by an on-call nurse daily - she is confined inside. She is treated at home for this illness and no progress or treatment is being made (despite her living past the standard life expectancy for severe cases) and she's pretty much a recluse in her little bubble of books and clean walls. This all changes when Olly moves in next door and the teenagers begin a secret courtship via email and texting - in the film, I personally thought it was clever to visually show the actors talking in Maddy's head during these text scenes (as there were many) and it showed both actors had good chemistry on set. Their relationship progresses to the point where they start meeting in secret and despite being told NO TOUCHING, they kiss - however, no infection or illness happens and this boosts Maddy's confidence. Maddy even runs outside to defend Olly against his abusive father and then decides to flee to Hawaii - where she does not consider her condition with the food she eats, swimming in the ocean, jumping off cliffs and having sex (the condom may have caused a reaction, but none of these factors were addressed).

Now here is the issues - disabled characters (and people) can go to exotic locations, eat or drink whatever they want and even have sex. But their disability needs to be taken into consideration in what they do. It is not a defining characteristic or trait, but it is a part of their lives and has its negatives in some areas and positives in others, but you are aware of it and especially if you are born with it - you know no different, but take your disability into account in whatever you do. Maddy never has this thought process: She is eventually hospitalised and returned home, but the final revelation changes the complete tone of the narrative.

Maddy was never sick nor is she disabled.

The revelation turns the story on its head. Maddy's mother actually had a mental breakdown after her son and husband died when she had Maddy, after which she convinced herself that Maddy's sickness as a baby was symptoms of SCID. Maddy just has a weak immune system, but has spent her whole life in confinment for no reason other than parental fear.

This story is actually about child abuse. Maddy is emotionally abused by her mother and Olly is physically abused by his father. Neither of these themes were truly addressed within the book or film and instead the teenage romance was heightened. There was much more opportunity to explore the emotionally and psychological abuse and side effects that two teenagers endure, but still find a meaningful relationship could have been profound. But alas, the love story was scripted in such an unrealistic and cheesy level, the relationship lacked any true connection.

This book and film has also fallen into the stereotypical and infuriating trope: disabled characters can't have a happily unless they are no longer disabled. To have Maddy be "healthy" at the end is such a lazy writing twist. Yoon could have shown her heroine learning to live with her condition, but no - this ending is another poor example of a lack of understanding or diversity for disabled viewers or readers.

The actual finale seems like wish fulfilment - Maddy moves to New York and reunites with Olly in a dusty old bookshop - which realistically could set off her weak immune system, but realism was thrown out the window somewhere around the third act. My final thoughts were "Where is she meant to live? Is she going to go to college? Does she have enough money to live in New York?" - None of these questions were answered, but instead we got a cliche smile and kiss among the bookshelves in the shop and slow-motion hand-holding running scene in the the middle of New York.

Disability in Kidlit raised similar criticisms within Jennifer J. Johnson's review, where she concluded with this excellent point:

"Disability is not just a romantic hurdle to get over, nor is it a guarantee of bad parenting. Characters with disabilities get little enough representation, and when a disability that could conceivably work against the love and sex life of a disabled character happens, it feels rather insulting to not show any work towards those issues that real disabled people might face, instead hand-waving away all their issues for the happy ending. Especially a happy ending that comes at the expense of scapegoating another disability."

There has been great steps in improving the representation of disability, but this unfortunately was not one of them. I will be doing a follow-up to this review with a top ten positive/realistic representations of disability.

~ Ted