Review of Let Them All Talk, directed by Steven Soderbergh

If you’ve been catching up on my blog lately, going through the recent movie reviews I’ve done, you’re probably noticing that almost every single one of them in the past few days has mentioned a trip to San Diego and watching movies on the plane.

Going to and from San Diego truly has led me to watch a ton of movies, as that was about fourteen hours of travel time when you factor in all of the layovers and whatnot.

In the end, because this was the point when Delta didn’t have the free Wifi on board, I was desperately trying to find ways to entertain myself before I finally went mad.

Anyways, one of the movies I watched during this time was Let Them All Talk. I hadn’t heard of this movie before landing on it as an option to watch, but I saw that Lucas Hedges was in it and was sold on watching it. Back in college, I had a minor obsession with Lucas Hedges as an actor.

It led me to go see him in his Broadway show The Waverly Gallery, and while was incredible, Elaine May really stole the show in that play. I have fond memories of this, so whenever I see he’s in something, I give it a chance.

I’ve rambled enough! Onwards with the review.

An author works on her manuscript on a sea liner to the United Kingdom, but with some bumps.

Our main character in this movie is Alice Hughes, who has won the Pulitzer Prize for her previous work, but is working on a novel at the beginning of the movie.

She’s most famous for her novel titled You Always/You Never, and the publisher is really hoping, as we see early on in the movie, that this secret manuscript of hers is a sequel to the novel that won her so much acclaim.

Now, a literary award is being given to her in the UK, but because Alice is suffering from health problems, as she has to take the voyage across the sea to get it.

So she invites her nephew Tyler to come on board with her, as well as some old friends from her university days. One of the friends has a touchy relationship with Alice, as she’s convinced herself that one of the characters is based on her, and that has led to many bumps in her own life.

Alice’s agent also secretly gets on board the ship, as she wants the scoop on the new manuscript. She befriends Tyler in an attempt to get more information, while Alice spends her days writing, eating, and swimming.

One of Alice’s friends gets cozy with another author on board, and that author warns Karen about prying when he discovers she’s on board. Roberta, the one friend who thinks a part of the novel was about her, tries to get an apology out of Alice, but that epically fails.

Alice then finds Tyler and Karen while on a date, and then Alice invites Karen to a dinner, which gets really awkward when Karen asks about the new book.

The other friend chews Roberta and Alice out at the dinner table, and Alice makes the dramatic decision to delete the manuscript. Turns out it was a sequel to the other book.

The ship arrives. Alice and Roberta have a meaningful conversation, and Roberta offers her newest life details in exchange for a cut of the profit. Alice says no, and Roberta tells her she misses when Alice was herself. Alice goes off into her room to start something new, but the next morning Tyler meets a man who was actually Alice’s physician.

He reveals Alice died that night, and Tyler, Roberta, and the other friend, Susan, go off to a grave of Blodwyn Pugh, which they were supposed to do with alice.

After they all return to the United States, Roberta tries to give Karen Alice’s writing, but Karen reminds her they cannot publish incomplete work. She tells Roberta to write her own story, and Susan begins working on a book as well.

Tyler returns to his aunt’s apartment with the writing he got from Karen, which Roberta had given her before, and he recalls a conversation he had with his aunt about what it means to affect other people and be aware.

Overall Thoughts

As a writer myself, I found this to be a really interesting movie to watch because there’s definitely ethical concerns when it comes to writing and how we appropriate other people’s stories.

Some writers will take other people’s stories and profit off of them, but there’s an ethical fine line when it comes to doing these kinds of things. Granted, the movie isn’t as clear to me as to whether Alice did it, but Roberta feels wronged.

When Karen encourages her to write her own story and book, that might truly be one of the best solutions—the best voice in some kinds of writing comes from authenticity and having lived through these experiences.

Lots of philosophy to think about in this movie. It’s a quiet one, but with a lot of impact once you start digging deeper.

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