Rating : ⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre : Sci-fi
Year : 2022
Running time : 2 hours 12 minutes
Director : Dan Kwan, Danielle Scheinart
Cast : Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Kwan
Kid rating : PG-17
Me, I’m a sucker for science fiction. And science fiction involving time travel? Multi-verses? Count me in! Bring it on! You get the idea. Naturally then, on reading the premise for Everything Everywhere All At Once, I was eager to get to the theatre. Ah, and was the excitement warranted? Yes. Deserved? I’m on the fence on that one.
So, here’s the elevator pitch: Evelyn Wang, our protagonist, is a busy, busy woman working on keeping her laundromat afloat. Life is soul-sucking and dreary, and Evelyn’s dreams have been ground down by the monotony of everyday routine. The love she once felt for her husband, a love that had her leave her family for him, has faded with time and disillusionment. Into this placid, nay, lackluster environment comes the future, complete with alternate multiverses and the villain who threatens to bring it all down. Of course (and don’t tell me you didn’t see it coming), Evelyn is our only hope.
I really wanted to like this film. I did too, in patches. The narrative veers between the present and the past and some fantastical imagery. Props for creating visual settings so surreal they jolt you awake. Which means there were some parts which put me to sleep, but hey, do you ever get perfection? The beauty of all this was that it was threaded together so seamlessly, with such balance and nuance. They’re fighting one moment, and the next moment there is a lovely, pathos-filled emotional scene and it all flows so beautifully!
Alas, that the film’s message all boiled down to a pithy aphorism (trying to not be spoiler-ish here). I’m let down. All this for some homily I could have gotten out of a mediocre Hallmark movie? All the science-y gobbledygook for this? Whither the promise of hard science fiction and intricate, mind-bending problems? Color me dismayed!
Michelle Yeoh is a graceful, talented actress and I’m glad she had her lead role here. Ke Huy Kwan who plays her ineffectual husband fits the bill. And Stephanie Tsu as her daughter Joy, who can’t and won’t fit in, is marvelous for this role.
So, should you see it? Yes, if you like science fiction and eccentric family-oriented films. If you have little appetite for the gloriously weird – know that this film is very off the wall and takes you on flights of fancy you might dismiss as nonsense. Now, if only those flights of fancy took you somewhere meaningful, my recommendation would have been a full-throated yes. As it stands though I’d say, it depends.
Kidwise: Slight sexual elements, mostly comedic and some heavily pixelated.
