Everything Everywhere All at Once opens with what appears to be a family of three singing karaoke in their living room and having the time of their lives. Then, the mirror through which we’re watching that moment play out switches to a different view and suddenly there’s nothing. The mirror angles down and a dining room table piled high with receipts can be seen in the reflection. This is where we meet Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh). She’s sitting at her dining room table attempting to navigate a sea of receipts. Her cramped apartment sits above the laundromat she and her husband own. Evelyn’s difficult-to-please dad (played by James Hong) is visiting from China so she’s trying to ensure she takes care of him while simultaneously giving him a good impression of the life she’s made for herself in the States. She’s also being audited by the IRS. In addition to that trauma, she’s just trying to get through life. Evelyn is making dinner, dealing with her daughter (played by Stephanie Hsu) inviting her girlfriend over unexpectedly, worrying what her conservative Chinese father will say when he learns that his granddaughter is gay, and thinking about what she needs for her meeting with Miss Deirdre Beaubeirdre (Jaime Lee Curtis) at the IRS. All the while she’s failing miserably at listening to her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) who desperately needs to talk to her about something important. Evelyn walks around in a daze, overwhelmed. She’s attempting to do so many things at once that she’s not doing any one of them very well. Her life may be mundane but, as we all know, mundane can get hectic real quick.
At the audit meeting, Waymond does something that Evelyn’s never seen before. He snaps out of being her kind and patient husband and instantly turns into an aggressive and agile fighter. It turns out Evelyn is living in one of many universes. And, this other Waymond (known as Alpha Waymond) has come to tell her that he thinks she’s “the one” that can save everyone (in the collection of universes which make up the multiverse) from total destruction. Jobu Tupaki is the ultimate evil, dead set on total annihilation. Alpha Waymond has popped into this version of reality to get Evelyn’s help. Together these two jump from universe to universe, gathering the skills they’ll need to defeat the dreaded Jobu Tupaki in order to save the multiverse.
Michelle Yeoh is incredibly relatable as Evelyn Wang. Through Evelyn, Yeoh gives us an overwhelmed business owner, mother, wife and daughter. In addition to that overwhelmed everywoman, she’s a warrior, a glamorous movie star, a chronic daydreamer and so much more. Yeoh makes each version of her character connect. All the Evelyns (even the one with hotdogs for fingers) have heart. Yeoh’s fight scenes are impeccable, every movement crisp and fluid. Her comedic timing was an unexpected treat and that dramatic range Yoeh is known for was on full display.
Ke Huy Quan delivers above and beyond anything I could have expected. In fact, I’m not sure what I was expecting from the former child actor whose face and voice I vividly remember from my own childhood. What I got was an unexpected action hero. Not only that, his dramatic portrayal has made me cry every single time I’ve watched this, and I’ve seen it 5 times now. Stephanie Hsu and James Hong aren’t far behind either. Each came with incredibly strong performances that both anchor the main story while simultaneously giving it wings.
Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Directors known collaboratively as Daniels) give us one crazy story that plays out in an infinite number of universes. It sounds overwhelming because it is. There is a lot of information (i.e. story) to process and it’s going to be thrown at you at breakneck speed. Every aspect of this movie from the lighting to the soundtrack provokes chaos. Daniels also included enough homages to other movies and winks to pop culture that despite the frenetic and chaotic nature of the story you’ll always feel surrounded by something vaguely familiar.
At first Everything Everywhere All at Once feels like pure pandemonium, an exercise in anxiety, but eventually it becomes easier to see through the madness to the core of the story. This is a movie about the multiverse and all the intricacies woven into an infinite number of realities, but it’s also about being here, right now. Ultimately, It’s easy to connect to the outlandish characters and storyline because it turns out lots of us really are confused and kind of freaked out most of the time. It seems we’re all out here looking for a little meaning in the mundane and Everything Everywhere All at Once is one incredibly entertaining and surprisingly profound take on what that might look like.
