EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU
A film review by Ivana Redwine
Copyright 1997 Ivana Redwine
Starring: Woody Allen, Natasha Lyonne, Julia Roberts, Goldie Hawn, Alan Alda, Edward Norton, Drew Barrymore, Tim Roth, Lukas Haas, Natalie Portman, Gabby Hoffman Written and directed by Woody Allen Cinematography: Carlo Di Palma Music: Dick Hyman MPAA Rating: R (for one use of strong language) Running Time: 101 Minutes
Imagine the enchantment of the MGM musicals of the 1930s and 1940s filtered through the mind of Woody Allen and what you have is EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU. Although the musical numbers are old standards, the story is set in the 1990s; yet the vintage music does not seem incongruous with the contemporary setting. In a strange alchemy, Allen combines his own personal brand of angst and intellectualism with the lighter-than-air quality of the old musicals, and the result is a wonderfully romantic movie that is one of his funniest ever.
People tend to either love or hate Woody Allen movies, and the reaction to EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU is likely to be similar. I'm a Woody Allen fan, so it's not surprising that I loved this film and was swept away by its charm. It's not a perfect film, but more important than perfection is the feeling that stayed with me for days after seeing it--an almost weightless feeling of the beauty of love and the shortness of life.
All the principal actors are given at least one song, and except for Drew Barrymore, they do their own singing rather than have the voice of a professional singer dubbed in. Some of the actors, notably Goldie Hawn and Edward Norton, are very good singers indeed. On the other hand, some, particularly Woody Allen and Julia Roberts, are barely adequate as singers, but their songs work anyway--the movie is not about getting every note just right, it's about the giddy joy of falling in love and the bittersweet heartbreak of falling out of it.
Music and an ensemble performance drive the intertwined love stories, which revolve around the members of an extended blended family. The story structure is almost a dance of life that continuously circles around in a cycle of love found, lost, and then found again. The disparate story elements are unified by the use of the narrator DJ (newcomer Natasha Lyonne), who is the college-age daughter of Steffi (Goldie Hawn) by a previous marriage to Joe (Woody Allen). Like almost everyone else in the film, DJ is a romantic at heart who seems to be always falling in and out of love. In addition to narrating, she acts as cupid in helping Joe meet Von (Julia Roberts), a woman he has fallen in love with at first sight.
Woody Allen's Joe is not unlike characters Allen has played in the past, an ordinary-looking man who is angst-ridden, neurotic, and intellectual. When Joe breaks up with his girlfriend, he takes a trip to Venice with his daughter DJ to try to escape his heartache. In a beautiful and wistful scene, Allen half sings, half speaks "I'm Through With Love" while he forlornly looks out at the Grand Canal. Of course, he isn't through with love for long. He soon sees Von and is instantly smitten.
As luck would have it, DJ knows all about Von because DJ and her mischievous friends have eavesdropped on Von's therapy sessions. (The idea of kids eavesdropping on therapy sessions is as horrific as it is funny, but this is the edgy kind of humor that Allen pulls off beautifully.) DJ feeds her inside information to her father, and for a while Joe is able to transform himself into the man of Von's dreams. Then, in an ironic and almost karmic twist, Joe is dumped by Von. After having been with him, she feels that she has fulfilled her romantic fantasy and wants to return to her old life.
Another major thread in the film is the relationship between DJ's sister Skylar (Drew Barrymore) and her fiance Holden (Edward Norton). Holden seems to be just perfect for Skylar, although things don't always go smoothly. For example, in an attempt to be romantic when he proposes to her, Holden hides the engagement ring in a dessert parfait, only to have Skylar swallow it. Later in the film, Skylar's mom, who is active in supporting liberal causes, throws a party celebrating the release from prison of Charles Ferry (Tim Roth). Skylar is so attracted to Charles that she breaks her plans for the marriage to Holden. But don't worry, Holden won't be through with love for long. When Charles returns to his old criminal ways, Holden and Skylar reconcile.
Another important thread in the movie concerns the remaining tenderness and attraction between Joe and his ex-wife Steffi. I really liked this thread's bittersweet quality and gentleness. Allen and Hawn have a great chemistry together, especially as they dance and sing while taking a late night stroll in Paris along the Seine. This scene simply took my breath away. Wildly romantic, it is the one scene in the film that is most reminiscent of the grace and screen magic of the old musicals. The effervescence of its music and Steffi's gravity-defying dance make it rank with some of the best scenes of this genre; I'd recommend seeing this film, even if it is just to see this one scene alone.
EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU explores love as it affects the heart through a wide variety of ages, including even a kid's first crush. There is an amusing minor thread about two girls, Lane (Gaby Hoffman) and Laura (Natalie Portman), who both have a crush on the same boy. Eventually they do get to know him after following him around for awhile; yet, heartbreak lurks on the horizon. He asks only one of them out.
Even though EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU is funny and romantic, it is not all fluff. The film is at its most powerful when it acts as an almost cinematic equivalent of a vanitas painting, juxtaposing the beauty of love with the idea of mortality and the frailty of the flesh. For example, there is an effervescently joyous song and dance number set in a hospital, but the number contains harsh undercurrents. In the scene, doctors, nurses, patients--some of whom are bandaged or in wheelchairs--dance and cavort while singing "Makin' Whoopee." Another outstanding scene in the same vein is almost a "danse macabre" set in a funeral parlor where ghosts rise out of their coffins, singing and dancing to the tune "Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)."
Allen has created some quirky and delightful characters. In addition, he has cast them well, which is important because the success of an ensemble performance depends largely on the strength of its actors. Part of what works in this film is that there are couples of a variety of ages, and for the most part these couples have the kind of chemistry that gives screen romance its luminescence.
Julia Roberts is convincing as the art historian Von, a beautiful and intelligent woman who becomes the focus of Joe's infatuation. She is perfectly cast as the kind of irresistible Goddess-like creature that could possibly make an ordinary guy like Joe do something as crazy and desperate as to try to transform himself into someone he is not. The relationship between Von and Joe is basically an extended one-liner, and Roberts has the kind of physical attractiveness and intelligence that makes the joke work.
Woody Allen as Joe is good, although this is the kind of role that he has done so many times that it has become almost an alter-ego for him. Where Allen really shines is in the scenes he shares with Goldie Hawn. Steffi is a wonderful, funny, and subtly dizzy character. In addition, Goldie Hawn is probably the best singer and dancer of the ensemble.
Alan Alda plays Steffi's current husband Bob, who is a slightly steadier and less neurotic man than ex-husband Joe. Casting is key here since Alda seems not to act so much as to play out facets of his charismatic and very funny self, and he turns out to be a rather good singer as well.
Edward Norton is wonderful as Skylar's betrothed. He obviously has great versatility as an actor; this is a much different role from the icily manipulative murder suspect that he played recently in PRIMAL FEAR. He truly steals the show when he sings "Just You, Just Me" to Skylar as they walk around New York's upper East Side during the film's opening sequence.
Tim Roth is Charles Ferry, the prisoner whose cause is championed by Steffi. When he comes to dinner there are some hilarious moments, thanks to Roth's comic gifts.
Natasha Lyonne sparkles both as the narrator and as Joe's biological daughter. She is perfectly believable in a role which in the hands of a lesser actress could have easily turned into little more than a device to unify the story. But Lyonne handles it beautifully, breathing life and credibility into a fanciful part.
Although it features flat-out gorgeous location shooting in such glamorous, yet real, places as New York, Paris, and Venice, this film and its characters belong wholly to the world of make-believe. This is a world where you are best friends with your ex-spouse, where the kids never seem to suffer any ill effects from the divorce, and where money is never a problem. Even the singing panhandler in the first sequence shot on the streets of New York is strangely non-threatening and better groomed than any panhandler I've seen lately. But let's face it, escape is the reason that many people, including me, sometimes go to the movies. However, Allen's trademark edginess and anxious intellectualism give the escapism of this film a much different flavor from that of the musicals produced during the Great Depression and World War II.
Although EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU is not one of Allen's deepest films, it is one of his most entertaining. It is a light film whose surface sweetness is tempered by echoes of love's potential for heartbreak and the impermanence of life. It is a film for Woody Allen fans and anyone who likes to laugh, who has been in love, or who has had a day when they couldn't get an old song out of their head.
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