If there’s ever a more appropriate time to destigmatise mental health, it’s now. Everything in Between is aiding this shift with a beautiful love story. It also tackles one of life’s greatest challenges, loss. It rolls around this beautiful metaphor of give and take and life and death.
Jason is a quiet teenager who struggles to find his voice. In the opening scene you can see there is a storm of emotion and questions about his existence happening internally. It’s easy to makes sense as to why a stranger pulls him from the edge of a cliff.
Sitting in the hospital waiting room for the psychologist to finish speaking with his mother, a chance meeting sets in motion a change Jason never thought would happen.
Getting home from the hospital, Jason’s parents struggle to process what has just happened and what they need to do. Clueless and insensitive, they fumble their way through, all the while not stopping to think how their actions could impact him.
Heading back to the hospital the next day for a follow up he once again crosses paths with the girl, Liz, he met the day before. Liz is a free spirit travelling the world and very much in touch with her inner self.
Using her unique natural health abilities, Liz works on Jason getting his chi flowing. Liz invites Jason back to her house where the two get to know each other talking of festivals and cooking.
As the two spend more time together, Liz receives some bad news as to why she is at the hospital. While Jason is going from strength to strength and his relationship with his parents is also strengthening, Liz’s health is deteriorating.
As Liz and Jason find comfort in each other’s arms, they also have to face the troubling reality that Liz’s days are numbered.
This movie is interesting because it doesn’t shy away from the fact there is life, and there is death. It introduces the idea of this storyline very early and hints as to the outcome of the characters. But as it also beautifully points out, life is everything in between that is worth living for, hence the name.
Lead Actor Jordan Dulieu who plays Jason Knight embodies the persona of an alienated teenager with awkward perfection. The journey Dulieu takes the character on is clever. He starts by struggling even to open his mouth big enough to let any words out. But the words he can muster are so flat and bland so as not to cause any emotional attachment. This all changes when he meets Liz, and his speech becomes more confident. The way he holds himself is filled with personality.
The only thing where Duileu isn’t able to connect is when he receives the bad news about Liz as he’s lying on his bed. For such an emotional scene that has been building since the opening scenes of the movie, it fell flat and didn’t quite connect.
Everything in Between is the brainchild of writer and director Nadi Sha. While Sha is relatively new to the responsibility of directing, it is evident they have the ability to bring the idea and vision of the story to life. Creating this wonderful to and fro between love and loss, life and death, good and bad.
He also managed to create this wonderful and sometimes exceptionally cute relationship built between Liz and Jason feel beyond the screen. Sometimes the characters on their own were hit and miss, sometimes seeming a little unobtainable to the actor. It was the interaction between two Liz and Jason that Sha managed to bring out of the actors and really hold its own on the screen.
Overall, Everything in Between is a cute coming-of-age teen drama. It knows itself from the get-go and doesn’t shy away from letting the audience know what’s possibly to come. It captures mental health and how easy it is to brush off when you don’t truly understand. It also shows how easy it is to pigeonhole someone with mental health issues. But in between these troubling moments in the character’s life we’re reminded that there is love. And all the bits in between life and death, like love, are actually worth living for.
