Shot over the course of one transatlantic cruise on the Queen Mary 2 by one of our finest talents in directing, built around partially devised-partially improvised scenes and dialogue exchanges from a burgeoning talent delivered by three of the finest actress of the past 50 years, all based around an intriguing concept of authorship and friendship – It’s fair to say that Let Them All Talk had an awful lot going for it. And for a semi-improvised film that was shot over a limited amount of time by a director famous for his ‘run and gun’ mentality of shooting and editing, the film may very well live up to its conceit and just might have given us one of the better slice of life dry comedy dramas of the year.

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The story of authors coming head to head with the possible real-life inspirations for their novels has been told before to varying degrees of success. Deconstructing Harry is lesser Woody Allen for instance as one example of this trope. Let Them All Talk places this dynamic between Meryl Streep as a much celebrated (at least earlier in her career) novelist named Alice and her long-time, since distanced, friend Roberta played by Candice Bergen, who may or may not have been the influence for the character Rowinda in Alice’s most successful and most acclaimed novel. The film then places Dianne Wiest in the middle as Susan, another friend who has remained close with Roberta, but remains similarly distant from Alice and can hence add some distance to the situation, repeatedly taking the time to focus her warring friends to the larger matters at hand in the word beyond the boat they currently cruise upon. The film is another intriguing project from Steven Soderbergh, who after threatening retirement sometime earlier in the decade, has only gone on to continue giving us film after film of quality. Sure, not every film is a sensational masterpiece, but all of them are intriguing and are always very watchable. Let Them All Talk is no exception to the rule placing its seriously winning triptych of talent on display like only Soderbergh can, with his noted clear talent for presenting stars being one of his finest attributes as a director. Here Soderbergh has a true triptych of talent who he positions in roles that only serve them to do their best work. Streep is wonderful as the cold, but fleetingly inspired Alice and Wiest is superb as the intentionally removed Susan, however the film rather shockingly belongs to Bergen whose Roberta travels along the clearest journey and spends her time dealing with all manner of interior conflict. The set-up and stories that Deborah Eisenberg has populated the film with lead to a truly dynamic film with a very interesting conceit. All in all, the film is just a very well made simple story; refreshing, in one word. One might call the film light even, but one must remember that light is not a synonym for lesser.

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However the film does have something missing, I certainly don’t side with the many critics who feel like the film would be significantly better if Soderbergh and Eisenberg approached the film with a different method of production and development, there is simply just something missing in regards to the narrative of the film. A final very shocking reveal does give the film some seriously unexpected weight and the concluding scenes we get with our other characters are all intriguing and deftly presented, however the suddenness of the this final reveal is its strength and also its weakness. The reveal stunts arcs and narrative growth in a way that would have perhaps felt more impactful if the previous scenes hadn’t been as passive as I found them to be. I understood the core reasoning’s for each of these decisions however felt that ultimately they led the film to solidify the comments of “meandering” that certain critics and audiences have labelled the film with. Beyond these issues with its conclusion, I can not the use word “delightful” enough when describing this film. The film may be light, but it’s lightness is indeed deeply refreshing and allows us to remain with these characters in a more human space for the time that we have with them. One can’t say that Eisenberg’s script is a laugh-riot, however it is frequently deeply awkward and very funny in its delivery of many dry and strained conversations and deliberations between our leads. One can’t also say that this is Soderbergh’s most exceptionally made film, however his directing, cinematography (under the pseudonym Peter Andrews) and his editing (under the pseudonym of Mary Ann Bernard) all serve the film wonderfully well and through a wonderful use of montage and distancing, the tale is told with economy and quality to a tee. Also one of the best aspects of the film may just be Thomas Newman’s jazzy and Vegas sounding score, giving a buoyancy to the film that helps the pace along, whilst also punctuating the elements of showmanship at the core of the story.

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A refreshingly marvellous 7/10. Soderbergh knows exactly what he’s got and manages to maximise the talents of three of our greatest actress, placing them in intriguing positions and dialogue exchanges that are frequently funny, usually very interesting and almost always well delivered. Streep’s excellent, I mean come on its Streep. But Bergen and Wiest may very well steal this show. Especially Bergen. Certainly Bergen.

P.S. Can someone please inform me how Lukas Hedges is acting with all of my favourite directors and many off my all-time favourite actors and actresses,  without me having any chance to stop him? He’s a fine supporting actor, but I would be interested now to see if he can hold an entire film, rather than just show up, do pretty good work and then leave. Hedges has been in some of the best films of the past decade and has never once for me been the thing that I leave talking about. If he is going to keep showing up, I’d like to have something to say about him next time that’s wholly positive without a note or addendum.

-          - Thomas Carruthers