Or don't bother at all. And you can easily avoid dreck like "Let Them All Talk."
I thought I was in for a fun ride on the living room couch. Look at the talent attached. Meryl Streep. Dianne Wiest. Candice Bergen. Director Steven Soderbergh. What could go wrong?
Remember the Bay of Pigs? The Challenger explosion? Rhoda's wedding?
So we have Streep as a snooty famed novelist. She is to go to England and pick up some literary award. She gets free passage on the Queen Mary 2 and gets to bring several friends. She brings along Bergen and Wiest...neither one of them she has seen in years. For good measure, she brings along her nephew played by Lucas Hedges. Why? Perhaps the production wanted somebody under the age of 75 on the call sheet.
If you think that sets things up for a little bitch fest on the high seas, you might as well head for the lifeboats right now. The movie is nothing but a series of meals over dinner. They have breakfast and talk. They eat lunch and talk. They share dinner and...wait for it...talk.
The word is spelled d-r-e-a-r-y.
Now this film was largely filmed right on board a crossing to England on the Queen Mary 2 which makes me think everybody on set was simply looking for a free vacation. But, as I survey the ship, it looks like the most boring cruise ever. And unpopulated to boot.
In the midst of nothing happening in this snoozefest, the last two reels find something suddenly happening that seems to come out of another movie altogether. It would have been a devastating plot turn if I only cared about any of these folks. I like all of the actors in this movie normally. But, in "Let Them All Talk?" Yeesh.
One more pandemic movie that you can sleep right through in the comfort of your own living room.
LEN'S RATING: One-and-a-half stars.
Dinner last night: Grilled bratwurst.
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