Movie Review - Let Them All Talk

This might sound like a strange comparison, but, as I watched this film, I thought of Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods. Lee's summer flick was about a group of aging friends who reunite for a trip overseas to a foreign country, as they reckon with incidents from their past, and it culminates with a death among them. That's essentially what this film is. Written by Deborah Eisenberg, a well-regarded author, and directed by Steven Soderbergh, the Oscar-winning filmmaker, instead of being about a group of Black men going to Vietnam, this film is about a group of white women going to England. The incidents from their past aren't the Vietnam War. It's instead the fact that one wrote a book that apparently offended some and inspired others. In Da 5 Bloods, a younger family member accompanies the older group and has a bit of a romance that's then aborted. The same occurs here. Both are well photographed and well acted. I think I prefer Da 5 Bloods because it comments on current events and has bigger themes at play. There are themes here to which anyone can relate, but I'm not sure it lands with as much of a punch as I would've preferred.

Meryl Streep (The Prom and The Post) stars as Alice Hughes, a highly acclaimed and very successful author in New York. She's in the process of writing her next book, but her literary agent is worried because she hasn't seen any pages or know what the book is about. When Alice is the recipient of a prestigious award in the UK, the agent wants her to go to the UK to accept it. Alice says she doesn't want to take an airplane, so the agent suggests she take a transatlantic ocean liner, specifically the Queen Mary 2. Alice agrees but only if she take some guests. She decides to take her nephew and two of her oldest friends from college.

Candice Bergen (Murphy Brown and Boston Legal) co-stars as Roberta, a woman who lives in Dallas. She currently works in retail at what looks like a women's clothing store that specializes in lingerie. However, she seems very annoyed at having to deal with certain customers who may or may not be endemic to this place. Whatever the case, she seems to have had enough of it, so going on the trip with Alice is very much welcome.

Dianne Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway and Hannah and Her Sisters) also co-stars as Susan, a woman who lives in Seattle. She seems to be some kind of lawyer who perhaps works as a civil rights advocate for incarcerated women. She's not all that motivated to go, but her son encourages her to go in order to connect with her friends whom she admits she hasn't seen in 30 years.

The reason the three women haven't seen each other in decades is probably in part due to the fact that they live in three different corners of the country. One reason might be due to the fact that Alice seems very snobbish and reclusive. Another reason, which might be the main reason is Alice's most successful work is a book called "You Always / You Never" and that book is seemingly about her friends, which paint them in not a great light, particularly when it comes to Roberta. Alice has seemingly invited them on this trip to try to make amends, but Roberta noticeably refuses to have time alone with her. Roberta is instead focused on generating new business opportunities for herself and wants to use the clearly wealthy people on the ship to do so.

Lucas Hedges (Manchester By the Sea and Boy Erased) plays Tyler, the nephew to Alice who lives in Cleveland. His friends don't know that Tyler's aunt is an acclaimed author, which is the start of a series of disconnects that people experience in this film. It starts with this intergenerational disconnect and slight cultural disconnect, especially when it comes to the literature or even forms of entertainment that Tyler's friends have, but, as Tyler learns, his aunt Alice has a disconnect not only with her friends but the kind of things that her friends enjoy. It could be seen as a kind of elitism.

Soderbergh is of course shooting on an actual ocean liner. He captures a lot of the beauty shots of the ship. At one point, Alice goes wandering through the ship and she's not allowed to go into certain places. We seemingly never go to the lower decks where things aren't perhaps beautiful. Yet, even within the upper decks where people probably of luxury dwell and roam, still there's some division possibly along class. Soderbergh shows that subtly. The comedy here is also a bit subtle. It's been reported that most, if not all the dialogue was improvised. It makes it even more remarkable how the actors here managed to execute the comedic bits or lines, so superbly well. I'm sure Soderbergh's direction and Eisenberg's writing helped, but definite kudos goes to the cast, particularly Bergen, Wiest and Hedges.

Rated R for language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 53 mins.

Available on HBO Max.