Everyone Says I Love You

Musical that presents us with the ups and downs of a rich family from New York. They travel to Paris and Venice, and introduce us to their love lives through the international language of gab and music.

Upbeat musical that works on some entertainment-value levels, but fails to delve into anything of great motivation for the audience to fully enjoy. This film is your basic Allen comedy (Standardized with the continually funny one-liners…”I should go to Paris and jump off of the Eiffel Tower. If I took the Concorde, I could be dead three hours earlier.”), but with much less character development, and much more songs sung by the cast. I personally am not a fan of musicals, so I must admit that I was somewhat surprised that I semi-enjoyed this movie. I mean, it wasn’t like EVITA, where the actors sung their lines throughout the entire movie. These songs were nice and lively, and introduced only when needed (Although I must admit that I could’ve done without the Woodster’s awful crooning, and Julia Roberts’ brave attempt at carrying a tune.)

Overall, the actors were very good, like every other Allen movie, with Alda, Hawn and Tim Roth sticking out in my mind as the standouts (Mind you, as per usual, I didn’t care for the Barrymore performance.) The scenery shots were beautiful, especially the fall and winter snapshots of New York, and the Venician and Parisian vignettes. The ending was a bit weak, but then again, the entire story line wasn’t really much to get excited about. Just a bunch of little adventures laced through some nice music and gorgeous scenery. Definitely far from my Allen favourites like ANNIE HALL (9/10), BANANAS (8/10) and CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (9/10), but a continuing sign of a genius whose only barometer of success lies deep within his own consciousness and spirit. Keep it up, Woody!! You’re the man.

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian