Welcome back to Movie Recaps. In the suburbs of Los Angeles,
eighteen-year-old Madeline Whittier lives in a special house that has been modified to fit her
special needs. Maddy suffers from SCID, or severe combined immunodeficiency, an immune
disorder that makes her body extremely weak, lacking the means to fight viruses and bacteria.
It's like she's allergic to everything: even the simplest of viruses can kill her,
and what she eats and what she touches can have severe consequences. Common SCID has a cure,
but hers is the rare kind. This is why she isn't allowed to leave the house. Her mother Pauline
Whittier is a doctor, so she watches Maddy's vitals and keeps records of them. It was Pauline
the one who figured out pretty quickly that Maddy had SCID after she got eight ear infections,
two cases of pneumonia, and failing to gain any weight as a baby - this was lucky of her, because
most SCID patients don't make it past two years old. Pauline's also made sure the house protects
her from everything: irradiators sterilize her clothes, she owns one hundred white t-shirts,
and the airlock is a sealed room surrounding the front door - it's airtight so nothing can't
leak with the door open. There's also a special room with a giant window that shows the garden,
which has been made so Maddy can at least have the illusion of being outside. Thankfully,
she has the internet to keep herself busy. She's joined an online support group, and even taken an
architecture class online, so making building models is a hobby of hers. Whenever she builds
something new, she puts a little astronaut inside because that's how she feels: like an astronaut
stranded in space. She also exercises and reads a lot, and then she posts reviews of the books.
Since her father and brother died when she was a baby, when Pauline is out working,
a nurse called Carla takes care of Maddy. She and her daughter Rosa are the only people Maddy
is allowed to hang out with, and because Carla has been working with them for fifteen years,
Maddy sometimes feels like she's trapped there with her. One morning, Maddy hears some noises
outside and when she looks through the window, she notices a new family has moved in next door.
The teenage son, Oliver Bright, sees her and says hi to her, which is the first social interaction
Maddy has had with a stranger in ages. Today is also her birthday, so Pauline takes the
day off to spend it with her. They eat cake, play phonetic scrabble, and watch a Nicolas Cage movie
that they need to pause when someone rings the doorbell. It's Olly and his sister Kayra Bright,
who have brought a bundt cake their mom made. It's a tradition of hers to send one to the neighbors
whenever they move, and while Pauline can't accept it, she does welcome them to the neighborhood.
Olly asks about his daughter, but to protect her, Pauline tells him she isn't around.
Maddy has heard all this on the intercom, so as soon as they leave, she goes to the
window to watch the siblings go back home and accidentally drop the cake to the ground,
breaking the plate. A moment later, Olly appears by his own window and waves his hand,
a gesture Maddy returns. The next day, Maddy hears noises outside again, and discovers Olly is doing
it on purpose to get her attention. He starts putting up a little play for her at his window:
while wearing all black, he pushes the bundt cake off the window sill as if murdering it,
then it appears resting next to a couple of pill bottles, and the final act is the cake
connected to a fake IV with Olly pretending to be a priest that is giving it the parting blessings.
Maddy finds it all hilarious, so when Olly writes his phone number on the window,
she doesn't hesitate to text him. Since then, the two teenagers begin texting each other every day,
chitchatting about anything and everything. They learn a lot about each other, like the
fact Olly is from New York, he wishes to move back, and his favorite person is his sister.
Maddy however, doesn't tell him she's sick until she can't dodge the subject any longer,
but Olly promises her he doesn't feel sorry for her. Since they can't meet in person,
Olly asks her to come to the window and describe her eye color, after which he
calls her beautiful. Days later, Carla finds out about Maddy's growing friendship with Olly.
She had already suspected when she noticed her looking so many times through the window,
and confirms it when Maddy badly lies about what she's looking at on her laptop. She asks Carla if
Olly could visit sometime, promising to make him follow all protocols, but she refuses. That night,
Rosa visits her and Maddy tells her a bit about Olly. Rosa comments how things are finally getting
interesting for Maddy and she won't get to see it because she'll be leaving for college in the fall.
One evening, Olly shows up in front of the giant garden window and connects his phone to Maddy's
wireless speaker to make it play "Heartbeats" by José Gonzalez. The two of them make their hands
meet on the glass, and Maddy can't help imagining what it would be like to kiss him. The next day,
she applies online for a credit card that she uses to get a new sweater that isn't freaking white.
When her mother sees her wear it sometime later, Maddy tells her she got it from Rosa.
A few days later, Carla has a surprise for Maddy: she's allowed Olly to enter the house, and she'll
let Maddy see him as long as she promises they'll stay on opposite sides of the room.
After changing into nicer clothes, Maddy goes to meet him, feeling rather awkward at first but
slowly easing into casual conversation. When Olly asks her where she would go if she could leave,
she chooses the ocean, because it's only three miles away from her house yet she never got to
see it. They don't really stay too far from each other: the more they talk, the closer they come;
and Olly is so nervous that he ends up tossing his rubber bracelet against the wall. When Carla comes
to tell them their time is over, she makes sure to know they haven't touched and once Olly leaves,
she teases Maddy for the yearning expression on her face. Maddy wants Olly to visit again,
and Carla decides they can try again after a week, when they're sure Maddy is ok from today's
encounter. Maddy keeps herself busy posting reviews while Olly is away on a vacation.
She does still call him however, to invite him to come over for Fourth of July so they can watch
the fireworks together - it's the perfect chance because it's Carla's day off and Pauline suddenly
got assigned double shift at the hospital, so Olly accepts. When the day comes, they start
the evening by chatting on opposite sides of the room, and Maddy is surprised to hear how much Olly
knows about math because he had mentioned being in summer school. Olly explains that's only because
his dad moves around a lot, and that Maddy makes him want to stay in Los Angeles. Tired of all
the distance between them, she comes closer to Olly and at first she tells him they should stay
friends, but eventually she gives in and they kiss while the fireworks begin appearing in the sky.
When Olly returns to his place, he still calls Maddy to make sure she's feeling okay, and she
promises she's perfect. Sometime later, Maddy discovers something very upsetting when looking
through the window: Olly and his father are arguing on the street and his dad begins beating
him up. Worried, Maddy rushes out of the house to check on him and this worries Olly in return,
who begs her to return to the house for her own safety. Their meeting is interrupted by Pauline,
who grabs her daughter without a word and takes her back inside, where she scolds her for being so
reckless over a stranger. When Maddy makes a face, Pauline realizes he actually isn't a stranger, not
believing her daughter when she says they've only talked online. When night falls and she's calmed
down a little, Pauline goes to talk to Maddy, who apologizes for what happened. Pauline expresses
sympathy for Olly's situation and offers to send someone to check on him, but Maddy turns her down,
saying Olly doesn't want anyone to know and he's only protecting his mother. Seeing as his daughter
really likes this guy, Pauline asks Maddy to tell her more about Olly, so Maddy comments
on all the things she likes about him and how good he makes her feel about herself. Pauline
is happy for her but for the sake of her life, she reminds her that they can't see each other again,
taking out the rubber bracelet she found in the other room when Maddy tries to deny it.
The next day, Pauline fires Carla for having allowed Olly inside, ignoring Maddy's request
to let her stay. Right after Carla leaves, Maddy throws up and begins having a fever, so Pauline
gives her some medicine and makes her stay in bed all day, leaving her without phone and internet.
Some hours later, when she starts to feel a little better, she goes to the window and sees Olly, who
quickly understands they can't text. So instead, he begins writing messages on pieces of paper
that he puts on his window for her to read. After making sure she's fine, he writes that he's sorry,
but Maddy replies she is not. The following day, Maddy meets her new nurse, an older woman that is
extremely strict and leaves notes all around the house with dumb inspirational quotes or reminders
of the rules, like having limited internet access from now on which will also be monitored.
Maddy tells Pauline that she misses Carla because she was her friend, but Pauline reminds her she
was just a nurse and she shouldn't have gotten attached. She thinks the same applies to Olly:
one day she'll find another girl who isn't stuck in her house and will forget all about Maddy. It
hurts Maddy to hear this, but the more she thinks about it, the more she can't stop imagining Olly
with another girl and realizes her mom is right: he'll be happier with someone healthy, and Maddy
is just setting herself up for heartbreak. She sends Olly a message saying they can't be
together anymore because she's ruining his life. Olly tries to call her but she won't pick up,
so he sends various texts to convince her not to break up with him, but she won't give in.
While Olly says he doesn't want to lose her, Maddy thinks there's nothing to lose because she can't
even leave the house. However, the next day, she wakes up to find the huge window downstairs
covered with pictures of the ocean and a note from Olly that says every ocean deserves to be seen
by her. Touched by the gesture, Maddy decides it's time to take matters into her own hands.
She writes a letter for her mother, telling her how much she loves her and thanking her
for everything she did for her, since it was thanks to Pauline that she's survived this long,
but it's no longer enough. She isn't doing this for Olly, she's doing this for herself,
because if she doesn't go now she'll never know what it is like to be truly alive. After leaving
the letter by her bed for Pauline to find and packing her bag, Maddy goes outside, getting
shocked by the feeling of warmth the sun leaves on her face. Once the initial sensations calm down,
she goes to the house next door and asks Olly to come out through a text, kissing him as soon as
he shows up. She then lies to Olly and tells her she's been doing gene therapy, which she hadn't
mentioned before not to get his hopes up. She says it seems it's working, but her mom is still
worried, so she's running away to test it because she will never truly know if she stays inside.
Using the credit card she applied for weeks ago, she bought two tickets to Hawaii and invites Olly
to come with her, and he of course accepts. After packing a bag of his own and calling his
sister to tell her to take care of their mother and not to tell anyone of what they're doing,
Olly drives them to the airport. Maddy is a bit scared of traveling by car at first even if it
isn't going too fast, but once she gets used to it, she asks Olly to go faster. Moments later,
while they're boarding the plane and flying to Hawaii, Pauline finds the letter and calls
the police. She also sees Kayra on the street and tries to get some information out of her,
but Kayra says she has no idea where the couple may be, protecting her brother as he requested.
Once they arrive in Hawaii, they stay in the same cabin Maddy's family used to rent when she was a
baby, so after leaving their things there, they go shopping for a swimsuit for Maddy.
They spend the whole day at the beach so Maddy gets to know the ocean and learn from Olly how to
swim and play games in the water. They also get a pair of scuba masks and snorkels to go diving and
watch all the beautiful fish in the area, jump off some high rocks into the ocean which is scary but
also very exciting, and end the day watching the sunset together. When they go back to the cabin,
Maddy mentions she misses her brother and father, which she finds weird because she doesn't
remember them. Olly tells him it isn't weird and finally tells her why he's moved around so much:
his father isn't very good at keeping jobs. He doesn't understand why his mom won't leave him,
Olly told her to do so many times but his mom only said that he'd understand when he gets older
and that love makes people crazy. Maddy agrees, accidentally revealing she's in love with Olly,
so he takes the chance to tell her he loves her too. When they go to bed some hours later, they
make love. The following morning, Maddy realizes she isn't feeling well and she's burning up with
fever. Olly calls an ambulance and she's taken to the hospital, where she could feel her heart
stopping as she dreams of Olly being away from her and trying to reach her. When she wakes up,
Olly is gone and she's back in her house with her mom. When Pauline finally leaves her alone, Maddy
grabs her computer and chats with Olly, who is incredibly worried about her. She apologizes for
putting him through all this and breaks up with him for good this time, claiming she's tired and
she can't do this anymore. Olly thinks his life is better with her in it, but Maddy says hers isn't,
causing a hurt Olly to say he lied and he does feel sorry for her before logging out. Days later,
since Maddy has learned her lesson in the toughest way possible and won't be repeating it soon,
Pauline accepts to leave her alone while she works instead of hiring another nurse. She goes back to
her usual routine and ignores an e-mail from Olly until one night, she sees him leave with his mom,
Kayra, and some bags. Maddy goes looking for his e-mail then and discovers it's a goodbye
letter because Olly is moving back to New York, doing it in the middle of the night while their
father is out drinking so they can finally leave him behind. Another few days pass, and
Maddy is surprised to get a call from his doctor from Hawaii that informs her of her lab results:
she only had a virus infection that only got a bit serious because she has a weak immune system.
Maddy tries to explain she has SCID, but the doctor doesn't believe it because if that
was the case, the virus would've caused a much worse effect on her. Shocked by this revelation,
Maddy starts looking through all of her mother's files but doesn't find anything
that confirms the diagnosis, so she confronts Pauline about it when she comes back from work.
Pauline swears she must have the papers that confirm she has SCID somewhere,
and it's at that moment that Maddy realizes her mother suffers from Munchausen syndrome by proxy,
a condition in which a caregiver creates the appearance of health problems in another person.
Crying her hear out, Maddy runs away, not listening to Pauline when she begs her to come
back inside. For the following days, Maddy stays with Carla and Rosa. She also goes to see a doctor
to get a proper diagnosis and this doctor confirms she doesn't have SCID, just an underdeveloped
immune system from under-exposure due to living in filtered air her whole life. One afternoon,
Pauline shows up at Carla's with some of Maddy's things and tells her what happened when she was
a baby. Shortly after her brother and father died, she got very sick and the doctors didn't know why.
Thinking it could be allergies, they gave Pauline a list of things to keep Maddy away from,
which developed into an obsession when combined with her fear of losing her like she lost her
husband and son. She apologizes to Maddy and hugs her before leaving. Some days later, Carla
goes to see Pauline and convinces her to open the house's windows to finally allow real air inside.
Maddy however, has trouble forgiving her. She understands her mother has gone through a lot
but she can't stop thinking about all the things she's missed in over fifteen years.
She decides to fly to New York, and once there, she sends Olly a message, asking him to meet her
at the Olde Book Shoppe. She's nervous because she thinks he may not show up at all, but as
soon as she arrives at the bookstore, she finds Olly waiting for her. After asking him to start
over and pretend this is their first meeting, the couple kiss and leave the store holding hands.