EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1997 Scott Renshaw
(Miramax) Starring: Woody Allen, Julia Roberts, Goldie Hawn, Alan Alda, Edward Norton, Drew Barrymore, Natasha Lyonne, Tim Roth, Natalie Portman. Screenplay: Woody Allen. Producer: Robert Greenhut. Director: Woody Allen. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (profanity, adult themes) Running Time: 95 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Woody Allen is one of the unlikeliest film-makers I can think of to try to revive the movie musical. It is true that Allen has made nostalgia something of his personal fiefdom, and that he clearly loves the old standards, but that doesn't necessarily make him the best man for the job. To oversimplify the matter somewhat, the near-total disappearance of the musical as a cinematic genre has been the product of a less innocent era; for a musical to work its magic on you, you had to surrender to its often-absurd optimism, something increasingly difficult to do in a cynical time. Woody Allen may not necessarily be a cynic, but he has become somewhat synonymous with sophistication. EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU is an entertaining trifle which never truly transports you because Allen is too often outside the genre. This may be the first meta-musical.
EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU deals with the complicated romantic entanglements of an upscale extended family. Teenager DJ (Natasha Lyonne) narrates the interwoven stories, beginning with her sister Skylar's (Drew Barrymore) engagement to upstanding young Holden (Edward Norton). Skylar and DJ's unlucky-in-love father Joe (Woody Allen) is an author living in Paris, currently trying to woo a young art historian named Von (Julia Roberts); Meanwhile, Joe's dyed-in-the-wool liberal ex-wife Steffi (Goldie Hawn) is remarried to like-minded Bob (Alan Alda), though Bob's son Scott (Lukas Haas) has become a conservative Republican. Naturally, all the relationships have their problems. Skylar is attracted to a rough ex-con (Tim Roth), Von is still married (if unhappily) and there may still be a bit of a spark between Joe and Steffi.
With so many film-makers content to make the same film over and over, you have to respect Allen for experimenting constantly with techniques (the hand-held camera work of HUSBANDS AND WIVES and MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY), narrative devices (the Greek chorus of MIGHTY APHRODITE) and genres. EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU is an experiment, to be sure, with most of the actors singing their own parts and production numbers popping up in the oddest places. A couple of the numbers work superbly, notably a ghostly dance to "Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)" which is reminiscent of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, but watching this film makes you realize how long it may have been since you've seen characters break into song on screen; even though you know it is a musical, it is a bit startling every time a song begins. Still, no one embarrasses him or herself (though Julia Roberts comes close), and the familiar songs are given unique spins out of their plot-appropriate appearances.
The problem with EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU isn't the songs, it is Allen's approach to them. His audience is notoriously upscale, and he makes his films decidedly with that audience in mind; how better to explain the knowing laughter which accompanies a cameo appearance by Itzhak Perlman playing violin at a party? In fact, knowing laughter plays a significant role in EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU. Allen appears to be banking not on the songs and dances themselves being entertaining, but on their silly incongruity being entertaining. One moment, a light-hearted duet between Goldie Hawn and Woody Allen on the banks of the Seine, strikes a perfect low-key tone, but it is a rare exception. Allen has made a comedy in which the object of much of the humor is the fact that people are singing and dancing; he is getting us to laugh _at_ the musical genre, not with it.
One of the ironies of that effect is that Allen may also have given a winking acknowledgment to critics of his romanticized view of New York. An early sequence finds a panhandler breaking into song, and Allen's tendency to focus on upper crust Manhattanites is given a nudge as he sets a scene Le Cirque and a production number at exclusive jeweler Harry Winston's. There is plenty to laugh at in EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU, from Skylar's propensity for swallowing engagement rings to one hilarious swipe at Italians from a Teutonic housekeeper, as well as inspired performances by Edward Norton (effortlessly charming in his two musical numbers) and Tim Roth (hilarious as a suspicious criminal thrust into high society). Curiously, those two performances also emphasize why EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU isn't better. They offer a couple of rare moments of unrestrained glee in a story which feels constrained by its characters' social positions, even though Allen is all too conscious of the world in which he has set his story. It is noteworthy that the Marx Brothers play a significant role in the film's climax (as well as the title, a tune prominently featured in HORSE FEATHERS), because EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU is a musical in the sense that the Marx Brothers' early films were musicals, where songs serving romantic sub-plots only got in the way of the real funny material. It is also set in the posh world the Marxes used to tear to shreds, only the classy folks are the heroes this time. Once upon a time Woody Allen seemed comfortable with Marx-ist ideology, but perhaps he has mellowed with age. EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU sings, but it might have soared if the guiding sensibility had been Groucho instead of Margaret Dumont.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 silly love songs: 7.
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