"Let Them All Talk" an actors' hang that's breezy and wistful yet inconsequential

Let Them All Talk (2020)

When risk-taking, introducing-Sasha-Grey-and-Channing-Tatum-as-real-actors filmmaking multi-hyphenate Steven Soderbergh (2018's "Unsane") approaches you about an improvisational shoot on a cruise ship, you take the work. “Let Them All Talk” seems like it might just be cruising on the treat of seeing the venerable Meryl Streep, Candice Bergen, and Dianne Wiest share the screen together aboard the Queen Mary 2. In a way it is, and yet all of it is shot and lit with panache like a quintessential Soderbergh film. The experimental director also supplies just enough compelling material for these acting pros (as well as Lucas Hedges and Gemma Chan), a wistful underpinning, and Thomas Newman’s playfully jazzy score out of a caper that keeps the film bumping along. "Let Them All Talk" is more pleasure cruise than consequential cinema, but you might be glad you came along.

Pulitzer-winning author Alice Hughes (Meryl Streep) is working on her new manuscript and requires complete complete privacy during her process. When prying literary agent Karen (Gemma Chan) needs an answer on whether or not the writer will be attending a prestigious award ceremony in London, Alice admits that she can’t fly. Karen suggests an alternative by arranging Alice to take the Queen Mary 2 cruise ship on a transatlantic crossing from New York to London. Alice will do it on my condition: that she can invite guests. Though they have not spoken in thirty years, Alice ends up inviting her two oldest friends. There’s Susan (Dianne Wiest), a Seattle advocate for female prisoners, and then Roberta (Candice Bergen), who’s living in Dallas and working in retail selling lingerie. Alice also brings along her nephew Tyler (Lucas Hedges). Once the friends are back together, Alice states up front that her availability will be limited due to her writing but can meet them for dinner. While everyone is off doing their own thing, Tyler is supposed to be watching over Susan and Roberta for Alice, but he is busy secretly meeting Karen on the ship to report back on whether or not his aunt is actually writing a sequel to her prize-winning novel.

There are several mysteries in “Let Them All Talk.” If Alice hasn’t gotten together with her gal pals in three decades, what are her ulterior motives for inviting them? Roberta believes that the protagonist in Alice’s novel has always been based on her and wants Alice to admit it, but why won’t Roberta ever take up Alice on her offer to get tea or a drink? Also, who is that man Tyler sees leaving Alice’s two-floor room on the ship every morning? And as Tyler keeps meeting up with Karen on his latest findings involving his aunt’s progress, will Karen share the same feelings for the younger man that Tyler seems to be developing for her? These questions aren’t exactly earth-shattering, but a couple of the answers actually hold a little weight or at least bring forth a sense of melancholy. 

“Let Them All Talk” does let them all talk, mostly coming down to being a breezy yet only deceptively light hang with actors we like and know can do anything at this point. Every actor reportedly used the story outline written by Deborah Eisenberg and improvised from there, while Soderbergh serves, natch, as his own cinematographer and editor under his usual pseudonyms Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernard, respectively. Meryl Streep brings all of the masterful technique she has honed to Alice, who becomes a fully formed character by the end of the film. Comparatively, Bergen and Wiest have less to do as the opportunistic, gold-digging Roberta and Susan, the biggest fan of a mystery writer who’s also on board the ship. However, their one-on-one conversational scenes when they’re playing board games and discussing how Alice now speaks with a highfalutin cadence (and Susan reminiscing about a threesome she once had) are amusing and often thoughtful. “Let Them All Talk” is a leisurely vacation for all, including the audience, until it pulls the rug out. Even then, one expects the end result to add up to more than it does.

Grade: C +

HBO Max is releasing “Let Them All Talk” (113 min.) to stream on December 10, 2020.