in Cinema

Meryl Streep on the High Seas in “Let Them All Talk”

Shot aboard the Queen Mary 2, Steven Soderbergh’s film stars Streep as a distinguished novelist travelling to collect a literary prize.

Illustration by Chloe Cushman

by Fenella Rufaro 24 September 2021, 9:19 pmupdated 2 November 2021, 9:00 pm 1.3k Views 2 Votes 5 Comments

The new movie from Steven Soderbergh, who directed “Traffic” (2000), “Ocean’s Eleven” (2001), and other films so numerous that he may have forgotten making them, is titled “Let Them All Talk.” It stars Meryl Streep as Alice Hughes, a distinguished American novelist who has been awarded something called the Footling Prize. (Can that really be the name? I do hope so.) In order to receive it, she must go to England, but she won’t fly. Instead, she condescends to travel by water, roughing it in a two-story suite on the Queen Mary 2, from New York to Southampton. She is accompanied by her nephew, Tyler (Lucas Hedges), plus two old friends of hers from college, Susan (Dianne Wiest) and Roberta (Candice Bergen). One is an advocate for imprisoned women, in Seattle; the other sells lingerie in Dallas. Alice hasn’t seen either of them in decades, so now is a chance to catch up. Such is the quartet of characters on whom this movie turns. It should be called “Ocean’s Four.”

Report