LET THEM ALL TALK

LET THEM ALL TALK begins in a restaurant with Alice Hughes and her literary agent, Karen. The pair discuss Alice’s upcoming novel, but Alice gets thrown off when Karen inquires about deadlines for the project. Alice insists that others have never interfered with her creative process before. Alice can’t travel via plane due to medical reasons, yet Karen convinces her to take a cruise ship to the Great Britain to accept the Footling Prize for Fiction. Alice reluctantly agrees.

Alice takes her twenty-something nephew, Tyler, and her two older college gal pals, Roberta and Susan, along for the overseas journey. Roberta sells lingerie in the mall and isn’t happy with her monetary status, constantly looking for a man who can help her achieve her financial goals. The cruise seems to be a promising option. Meanwhile, Susan’s son has some business troubles, so a getaway sounds like the move for her! After all, it’s been 30 years since they’ve all been together.

Once on board the Queen Mary II, everyone takes in the grandeur of the ship. The three old pals take an opportunity to have a drink in the evening and catch up, but it’s clear that time away from one another has brought more than just physical distance.

The next morning, Alice and Tyler debrief Alice’s plans for the day, including her schedule for writing her new novel. Shortly after, however, Karen calls Tyler and mentions that she’s on the ship and would like to meet up with him.

That evening, Tyler and Karen discuss the reason for Karen’s being on the ship. She’s worried that Alice isn’t working on her manuscript, and her supervisors will be irate if she’s not checking on Alice. So, Karen asks Tyler to keep it a secret, and they start hanging out socially when Alice seems preoccupied.

Like Alice, who seems to have an aversion to writing her manuscript while on board, Susan and Roberta are doing their own things on board. Roberta keeps looking for a spouse with loads of money, and Susan runs into an old sexual partner but tries to put it out of her mind. Meanwhile, Tyler starts developing romantic feelings for Karen, but it’s not clear that she feels the same.

Everything comes to a head when Alice catches Karen and Tyler on the bow of the ship.

LET THEM ALL TALK has a fabulous cast, but as far as accolades go, they stop there. LET THEM ALL TALK is slow-paced and boring. Any moments of intrigue are few and far between, but HBO Max probably will sucker in viewers with the names on the marquee. At some points, it feels like the actors are stepping on one another’s dialogue. That said, the performances are as good as they can be considering the movie’s lackluster script.

LET THEM ALL TALK has a light humanist worldview where many characters look out for their own desires and self-interests rather than genuinely care about others. There’s some morality. For example, Alice looks out for her nephew and openly rebukes selfishness among her friends. This content is mixed with some Romantic elements occur when an aunt tells her nephew that attraction from the heart is the fullest expression of life. Also, a woman mentions she had a threesome back in the day with another guest on the cruise. Lastly, some false New Age elements include a mention of healing crystals, a character asserts all humans are the same, and a character says the formation of the universe was a miracle but doesn’t mention the Creator or God. Due to all these reasons and some strong foul language, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for LET THEM ALL TALK.