Everyone Says I Love You is a musical, of sorts.
It’s kind of a throwback to the old-school musicals of Hollywood’s heyday (think MGM in the 1950s). But I’m not sure all of the cast actually sings. The voices that come from their mouths don’t seem to match what I thought they’d sound like.
Oh, I can recognize Edward Norton’s voice. And Alan Alda’s. And a few others.
But does Tim Roth really sound like that? If so, he’s pretty good.
This is another huge, star-studded cast.
Too huge, in my opinion.
When the cast gets this big, I don’t think Woody knows how to film it well. Everyone Says I Love You comes across too jumbled, too jam-packed, too frenetic.
This is a new twist on a Woody Allen film. In fact, it’s an ambitious Woody Allen film.
But it’s a typical Woody Allen film in that it’s filmed in New York, it’s chock-full of neurotic characters, it’s about relationships, and love, and death (the ghosts dancing at the visitation, for example).
Woody was 61 in this picture. His love interest (Julia Roberts) was 29.
In other words, Woody gets older. But his leading ladies do not.
It starts to look a little creepy after awhile (especially in an upcoming movie, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion when Woody – then 66 – is paired with Helen Hunt – then 38).
By the way, I love the Captain Spaulding number, which is an homage to the Marx Brothers.
And the dance number beside the river with Woody and Goldie Hawn was magical, a really well-constructed scene that astounds and delights.
Everyone Says I Love You isn’t a bad movie. In many ways, it’s a very fine movie. It’s just not one on my Best-Of-Woody list.
