Being in the middle of prestige movie season, the Pavlovian response is “where’s Meryl Streep?” It was getting a bit worrisome early on there; The Prom seemed like the only entry, and arguably she was the weakest part of that film. Well, Steven Soderbergh is here to satisfy! Let Them All Talk, yes, contains the Streep “For Your Consideration,” but it also is a deftly half written/half improvised(!) story about lots of little life lessons for both the young and the old. And it nearly redeems cruise ships from their horrendous 2020 showing.
Streep plays Alice, a Pulitzer prize winning writer. She receives an award in the UK, but is reluctant to fly there. Encouraged by her agent Karen (Gemma Chan), Alice agrees to a boat trip across the Atlantic. She has one request though: that her best friends Roberta (Candice Bergen) and Susan (Dianne Wiest), and Alice’s nephew Tyler (Lucas Hedges), also accompany her on the trip.
Even though there’s a potboiler writer (Daniel Algrant) on the ship, this isn’t a claustrophobic murder mystery; or a melodramatic sexcapade. Or Meryl Streep’s Titanic. Now, for a novice, mining drama out of this story might be best left for a play (Deborah Eisenberg is a short story/play writer), since most of the drama is under the radar. But we’re talking about Steven Soderbergh here, one of the great directors of all time. He turns Let Them All Talk into a sort of mini mystery, leaving the unsaid conversations unsaid, and letting characters/the audience figure them out slowly over the trip. Soderbergh uses the routine of a cruise day to help instill a sense of drama as we as the title says, let all these people talk. There’s a routine morning exit from a suite that catches Tyler’s attention, who then passes that info on to other people, and others, like a game of telephone. Is a conversation between two people going to manifest in a group setting? Will Alice find out who else is on board unexpectedly? Why isn’t Roberta meeting Alice for a drink when she asks? Even though no one has died, Soderbergh’s direction and Eisenberg’s story outline extract as much drama as can be from a light script like this one. Their efforts result in a movie that stays with you long after its over because of all the topics the movie touches but never easily walks you though to say something obvious.
Like a great director and writer, Let Them All Talk also works so well because of who’s doing the talking, all of whom can add improviser to their resume now. Streep is the known commodity, looking like Ms. Darbus from high school musical and finding her own inroads into a writer hoping to unblock themselves. Her performance here is as good as everything else she’s done. It’s also a delight to see Candice Bergen and Dianne Wiest again. There aren’t enough roles for older women, especially ones as talented as Bergen and Wiest, who both make the most of their chance here: Wiest gets the best emotional moment of the movie, and Bergen drives a lot of the tension in the story with her performance. Helping out the lovely ladies are 2 talented actors in their own right. Lucas Hedges shows his versatility again here, playing Tyler like an affable doofus, something he’s not done before. His enthusiasm plays nicely off the world weariness everyone else has. Gemma Chan was potentially the weak link here, but any worries about here performance evaporate quickly as she holds her own in scenes with Streep and Hedges. The fact that I couldn’t tell this dialogue was improvised is a testament to how good everyone is here.
Let Them All Talk is a wonderful message to any upcoming artist out there. As long as you cast smartly and write something interesting, you don’t need violence or special effects for your movie to succeed. Heck, with Let Them All Talk, you barely need a full script! Though I’m sure it helps having a Baby Yoda at your disposal to instantly get people to notice your work.