Steven Soderbergh’s latest flatters to deceive
With a cast as star-studded as it commands, Let Them All Talk should be great. However, the film ends up leaving one as cold as the Atlantic Ocean much of it is set on.
Released December 10th, 2020 through HBO Max, Let Them All Talk (LTAT) sees Steven Soderbergh tap some of the most decorated talents in his bursting rolodex. The pieces should add up to something more, possibly even Academy Award fodder. LTAT (does the acronym too closely mirror another?) counts among its cast: a 3-time Oscar-winner, a 2-time Oscar-winner, and a few past nominees who will surely have their 45-seconds to thank loved ones atop the Dolby Theatre stage in Los Angeles one day. Yet, despite all the wattage available to him, Soderbergh struggles to light up both the screen and his audience.
Alice (Meryl Streep) is a decorated writer who is set to receive yet another accolade. The trouble is the ceremony is in England and she can’t fly on account of her health. That’s no problem, however, as Karen (Gemma Chan), her beleaguered agent, has a connection with somebody aboard the Queen Mary 2 and the literary agency can foot the travel costs for the transatlantic voyage. Alice agrees to sail on the ship, on the condition that she can bring along her nephew and some old friends.
Her nephew, Tyler (indie-darling Lucas Hedges), is a 35mm film-camera-toting undergrad student, who can’t believe his friends aren’t familiar with his aunt’s oeuvre — “she’s won a Pulitzer” — and who jumps at the opportunity to embark on the impromptu trip. Alice’s friends Susan (Dianne Wiest) and Roberta (Candice Bergen) also take little cajoling to pack their bags, but we learn that things are a tad fraught between the old college cohort.
While Karen was well-intentioned in accommodating Alice’s health problems with an alternate mode of travel, she was also betting on lightning to strike twice. Knowing that Alice had drawn from her life to write her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, You Always/You Never, and under massive pressure from her higher-ups at the agency to get Alice to cough up a manuscript that had many curious, Karen had arranged for the trip hoping that inspiration would visit Alice and she’d produce a sequel. In a bid to get a look at the elusive manuscript, Karen herself snuck onto the ship unbeknownst to Alice.
Much of fanfare around the film has revolved around Deborah Eisenberg’s script, or rather, the lack of it. While Eisenberg had written a script, the actors were given free reign to improvise much of the film. Although they all certainly possess the chops to do so, the result is a bit like the pool Alice does laps in every day at 3pm — tepid.
Roberta is supposedly angry with Alice for having ruined her life in drawing upon personal events for You Always/You Never. Supposedly the dramatization of her life had led to the dissolution of Roberta’s marriage, and she has stumbled around since, struggling to gain a foothold and move on. Now working in the lingerie section of a soul-sucking Houston department store, Roberta seems intent upon scoring a wealthy husband while onboard. As a result, Roberta ends up spurning Alice’s entreaties to grab a nightcap and clear the air in favour of frequenting whatever social events are happening on the night. Susan is largely a waste of Dianne Wiest’s talents — she spends most of the time mediating the tension between her college besties but has some memorable moments when her head is turned by a famous writer she realizes is on the ship. Kelvin Krantz (Daniel Algrant) is a mystery writer, the kind who churn out new books every few months that sell like hot cakes. Susan and Roberta both adore his work, so naturally Alice abhors it.
Unable to reveal herself to Alice, Karen instead befriends Tyler in a bid to tap him up for information on his aunt’s progress. Lonely, having spent much of his time with “dinosaurs” (as Susan puts it), Tyler is easily charmed by the agent with the English-accent. Although purportedly a well-read man — at least he’s delved into his aunt’s work — Tyler is unable to piece together he’s being used. Perhaps it’s the moments of intimacy in which Karen shares the details of her recent divorce from a wealthy investment banker, or the times in which she too succumbs to the loneliness of a one-bedroom cabin at sea to go dancing with him, but Tyler quickly falls for her. What made the young man think he had a chance after he saw her Cartier or Fendi bags, we don’t know, but it doesn’t stop him from shooting his shot, or us from cringing at his naïve folly.
Still, Karen’s patience gets her nowhere, as Alice is as guarded with Tyler as she is with the rest of her friends. Somewhere along the path of mining her friends’ lives to become a literary superstar, she lost her ability to empathize and picked up an outlandish accent that Susan and Roberta both mock. While she has achieved a lot, Alice lacks some of the trappings of intimacy.
Some of LTAT’s best moments come in its wordless depictions of the inner life of the ship. Forays into the kitchen and laundry areas offer us a moment of silence amongst all the chit-chat. The bustle of efficient activity is something to behold – the hundreds of plates being prepared for dinnertime all gleam, and the whites of the freshly laundered sheets couldn’t be crisper.
Expecting a resolution between the friends would be too much, and Soderbergh doesn’t have a sentimental side. But Let Them All Talk still shines a light on the difficulties of maintaining friendships across a lifetime with a degree of tenderness. The truth that finds itself beneath the spotlight is an uncomfortable one: we all change — but sometimes, for the worse.
