Mr. Movie: ‘Let Them All Talk’ is all talk and not much else

Let Them All Talk

I suspect part of what got the actresses and actors involved in “Let Them All Talk” is the location. A couple of weeks lounging around on the Queen Mary 2 on its way to England and doing a bit of acting here and there had to be fun.

Relaxing even.

Filmmaking legend Steven Soderbergh directed. Wiki says he did the film on the cheap. Soderbergh handled most of the camerawork and cinematography. Maybe he, too, saw this as a working vacation.

His film looks that way.

Meryl Streep — Wiki also says — got paid $25 for playing author Alice Hughes. She’s past her prime and looking to write that last, great novel. In fact, Alice has been paid and the publishing company wants that book.

It’s not done. Not even close.

A deal is cut to have Alice do some speaking on the QM2 in exchange for passage to England. During the trip she’s to finish the book. Part of the agreement allows her to bring her nephew and two of her best pals from college. The nephew is done by Lucas Hedges (“Manchester by the Sea,” “Boy Erased”). Candice Bergen and Dianne Wiest play Alice’s friends.

Gemma Chan (“Crazy Rich Asians”) plays the literary agent who schemes with the nephew to get info on the book.

The screenplay is written by actress and first time writer, Deborah Eisenberg. When you break it all down, the outline of the plot is Eisenberg’s. The Oscar winning Soderbergh (“Traffic”) bagged much of her dialogue and told the actresses and actors to wing it and ad-lib their way through the story.

It sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t.

Bergen’s Roberta is ticked at Alice. She may or may not have been the subject of Alice’s hit book. That book destroyed her life. Roberta now sells lingerie and is struggling. Most of her time on board is spent trying to land a rich guy and a better life.

Acting as a mediator between the two is Dianne Wiest’s, Susan.

Rounding out the plot is a relationship between the agent and the nephew. A popular author who churns out crime novels in bunches is also on the ship and is a thorn in Alice’s side.

Soderbergh’s movie is billed as part comedy and part drama. It’s not really all that funny nor is it all that dramatic. All that works is the acting. Streep is amazing as the frosty Alice. She’s a snob who uses her education and former success as a shield to keep others at bay.

Streep is so good that you can almost see the icicles hanging from each line of dialogue.

The film’s best acting belongs to Bergen. We know her best from TV antiquity and her character Murphy Brown. Bergen won Primetime Emmys and a Golden Globe. Some of us remember Bergen more from the exceptional acting she did early in her career in films like “Carnal Knowledge.”

Bergen is also the best ad-libber of the bunch and seems to be having more fun with her character than the others. Of the three actresses, Bergen seems the most real. She perfectly plays a bitter, gold-digging woman whose did you or didn’t you, and you owe me, exchanges with Streep are priceless.

The soft spoken Wiest — like her two co-stars — is also quite good. She plays Susan as a peacemaker and a kind and patient friend.

“Let Them All Talk” is a showcase for three very, very good actresses and relative newcomers Hedges and Chan. No doubt, they and Soderbergh had a lot of fun doing this one. Other than watching some great acting, it’s too bad none of the rest of us will have all that much fun.

As a movie, this sets sail with a lot of promise, quickly hits choppy waters and sinks.

▪ Rated R for language and mature themes. You can stream this one on HBO Max.

▪ Rating: 3 out of 5

Wander Darkly

Sienna Miller and Diego Luna are an unmarried couple. They just had a kid and bought a home. What they aren’t sure of is each other.

On the way home from an uncomfortable party, they get into a bad car wreck. She dies and ends up in some sort of purgatory. Or did she die? You’re not sure. He’s also there and apparently died a few years later. Or did he?

Does that sound confusing? It is, and it’s deliberate confusion that two characters are forced to use to begin the process of working out their relationship. That translates into a bit over 90-minutes of back and forth dialogue. By mid-movie you’ll find it hard to care one way or the other whether they get there or not.

Fingers are pointed. Claims of infidelity are tossed about in sharp-tongued exchanges. Each accuses the other of not making them the focus of their life. Failure with their child enters into the arguing. Parents, careers and money aren’t far behind.

And on it goes.

This had to be a real challenge for Miller and Luna. Both are exceptional actors and have great chemistry. The dialogue is intense and while this isn’t an action movie, drama this emotional has to be physically draining.

Unfortunately, “Wander Darkly” wanders in territory that lots of other — better films — have wandered through. Writer/director Tara Miele got the idea when she barely survived a dangerous car crash herself.

On the surface — and as Miele channels her inner Terrence Malick — the concept is interesting. Like most of Malick’s films, the movie is as surreal as an out of body experience. Miele bounces her two characters from present to past and back.

This is a movie badly in need of some Ritalin. Miele never stops moving the camera nor her characters. It’s restless to the point of irritation. Intense exchanges are punctuated with uncomfortable closeups and a camera that whirls and twirls so much that it often distracts from the dialogue.

The dialogue is intense. Revealing. Brilliant sometimes. At other times, it’s tedious. The he-said-she-said gets too personal at points and makes you wish Miller and Luna would take their discussion somewhere else.

▪ Rated R for language, mature themes and brief nudity. It can be streamed as a pay-per-view purchase on premium video sources.

▪ Rating: 2 out of 5

The Devils Heist

“The Devils Heist” is an awful movie. This is as low-budget a production as a low-budget can get. The reason for the review is because an old friend and Tri-Cities resident, Marjorie Kunigisky has a major role in the film. Many of you know Marjorie from Ye Merry Greenwood Players and the festival the players put on in Richland for eons.

I had a blast the few times I went. This movie — on the other hand — is a different kind of blast. It’s fun watching a friend work.

Marjorie plays an older witch working with younger witches at the Coven National Bank. It’s where Lucifer keeps his cash. A dumb bank robber who just got out of prison, his pal and the pal’s girlfriend rob the bank. The witches respond, Lucifer gets involved and things end badly for the bank robbers.

Not as badly as the acting but close.

Forced to deliver horribly-written lines, her low-key, even-keeled, patient acting is very good in a film loaded with non-excellent acting. I loved watching Marjorie work and found myself wishing they’d done a rewrite or two before starting production. Her work — and that of the other actors — might have turned out better. However, and oddly, at times I managed to enjoy the movie.

Sometimes bad is so bad that it’s good.

▪ Rated R for language, mature themes, brief nudity. It can be streamed.

▪ Rating: 1 out of 5

It’s a Wonderful Life

As promised, the second of my four favorite Christmas movies.

Done by Frank Capra in 1946, it has — in my opinion — Jimmy Stewart’s best performance in a career full of best performances. He’s poor, do-gooder George Bailey, stuck in his hometown of Bedford Falls doing what’s right and not what he wants. George would rather be anywhere else. His foil — other than himself — is the greedy, miserly Mr. Potter, who more or less rules the town.

As you know, theft of cash from his savings and loan causes Bailey to want to bag life. By the tear-filled climax, Bailey learns that life’s biggest treasure is life itself and loving others and the love returned.

Capra, via Stewart, tells us that while we don’t think our life is that important and that what we do doesn’t touch others, it does.

Every year, It’s a Wonderful Life reminds us that it’s wonderful to be human. No one gave more than George Bailey. And for decades this three-dimensional, and flawed human being, has inspired me — and hopefully you — and shows us there is no better calling than to serve others.

A definite hanky movie. Few of us can get through this one without shedding a tear or two.

▪ Not rated, probably PG-13 for mature themes. You can find it all over TV this time of year.

▪ Rating: 5 out of 5

This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 7:25 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie: ‘Let Them All Talk’ is all talk and not much else."