Review: Let Them All Talk

Image courtesy of HBO Max.

Steven Soderbergh's latest film, "Let Them All Talk," is deceptively stylish, light and breezy like many of the director's other films - but similar to his other work, its heavier concepts only gradually reveal themselves and finally land with a gut punch.

In the picture, Meryl Streep plays an aging, affected author named Alice who is in the middle of a new novel that could be a sequel to one of her most famed works - the question remains: Which one? For Karen (Gemma Chan), Alice's newly acquired agent, she hopes it's a sequel to the novel that won her a Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a movie. Although, that's unlikely, because Alice views that book as her Achilles' heel.

Alice makes reference to another of her more writerly works, of which she's most proud, and when Karen mentions this possibility to her anxious publisher, he groans. Karen, you see, has possibly bitten off more than she can chew. She has promised her publisher that she'll get Alice to move it along with her book and reveal some information on it in exchange for paying for a ride on a cruise ship to England, where Alice is to receive a prestigious award. Alice is afraid of flying.

As part of the deal, Alice gets to bring along two women - Susan (Dianne Wiest), a court advocate for troubled women, and Roberta (Candice Bergen), who sells lingerie and spends much of her time on the boat trying to meet rich men - with whom she was best friends in college, but hasn't seen in nearly 30 years as well as her doting nephew, Tyler (Lucas Hedges).

Early on, Karen approaches Tyler, who becomes a somewhat unwitting spy on his aunt's progress, all the while beginning to have feelings for Karen. Meanwhile, Roberta has a grudge to bear against Alice, whom she believes based a character in a novel on her failed marriage, thereby ruining her life. Susan, all the while, tries to keep Roberta calm, while trying to appease Alice and scoping out another author on the boat - a kindly middle aged man who happens to be the author of numerous runaway thriller best sellers, the type of books at which Alice scoffs.

There's a lot of funny material on hand here, especially the tete e tetes between Roberta and her lingerie store manager and the hilariously insufferable blatherings of Alice on being a writer. Part of the women's mission is that once they arrive in the United Kingdom, their first stop is to visit the grave of a Welsh author named Blodwyn Pugh - who seemingly doesn't exist, and Soderbergh is likely to have stolen the name from the 1970s band Blodwyn Pig - whom both of Alice's friends attempt to read, but can't quite get through it.

But as the film goes on - and a few secrets and a shocking plot twist are revealed - "Let Them All Talk" has become much more dramatically engaging than one might originally have thought. Yes, the film is a comedy - and often a very funny one - but this deceptively lightweight film eventually wades into themes of regret, betrayal and loneliness and it ends up being one of Soderbergh's better pictures of recent years. The film's cast is terrific, its writing sharp and its ending slightly mysterious. It's well worth your time.