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Overanalyzing Anime
Blog Owner & Lead Writer
Diagnosed with a rare illness that prevents her from going outside, eighteen year old Maddy toils away in her house, finding ways to ease her endless boredom - however, that all changes when a cute boy, Olly, moves in next door. The two teenagers quickly fall for one another, but how can their relationship blossom when one of them is unable to step out into the sun?
While this definitely isn’t my type of movie, I really can’t say that it’s all that bad. I really liked certain aspects of it, such as taking the texting/phone conversations - which could have been left as word boxes in the corner of the screen, or shots of them staring at each other through the window - & making them actual “face-to-face” conversations in her architectural designs. I was also a really big fan of the twist ending - more on that later.
One thing the movie does well is the relationship between Maddy (Amandla Stenberg) & Olly (Nick Robinson). This is mostly because, despite the unlikelihood of their being together, they manage to prove their relationship can work.. in a way that only two fictional characters - erm, I mean regular people - can. No, but all jokes aside even though I can’t appreciate the sappiness of romance movies - probably because I’m inherently a cynic - I can appreciate the on screen chemistry between the two actors.
Spoilers follow.
While most of the story is a retread of what we’ve seen in romance movies before, the plot twist in this particular movie makes it standout amongst the crowd. Discovering that she didn’t, in fact, have SCID was really a game changer - & it was only amplified by finding out that it was a lie orchestrated by her mother. I expected, maybe they would do something ridiculous where their love cured her - but her mom making the whole thing up? Damn.. I just didn’t see that coming.
All in all, if it weren’t for the twist in this movie, I wouldn’t say that I’d really recommend it; it’s a story that’s been told time & time again - but, with the addition of the plot twist, it makes the movie significantly more compelling.
My rating 8/10
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