Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

★★★★
Everything Everywhere All at Once belongs in the same category as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Tree of Life and Synecdoche, New York—movies about the challenges of being alive and how it is worth it all the same. They have one thing in common. Their main characters experience a journey into worlds that stretch into infinity. Eternal Sunshine… went into the deepest recesses of the mind, the limits of which are unfathomable (imagine a human brain with the capacity of over 1000 terabyte hard drives). Tree of Life gave us a glimpse of the afterlife, which will exist well after the earth's destruction. In Synecdoche…, Philip Seymour Hoffman composed the grandest of plays to explore the nuances of his own life. The play eventually consumed him and everyone around him. Everything Everywhere All at Once works within the theory of infinite universes, based on the idea that every choice we make actually happens, resulting in the birth of new universes that branch off from those choices. In an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Worf experienced this concept firsthand when he jumped into different versions of himself in multiple universes.

Hong Kong action star Michelle Yeoh stars as Evelyn, a laundromat owner with so much going on around her that she barely has time to finish a conversation with one person before starting a new one with the next. Her overbearing father Gong Gong (James Hong) just arrived from China and disapproves of just about everything Evelyn has ever done, including marrying her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan). The laundromat is failing and being audited by the Internal Revenue Service. Her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) is a lesbian, causing uncertainty in how to deliver the news to Gong Gong. Evelyn is also planning for a Chinese New Year party that evening, adding to the growing list of stressors, and to make matters worse, Waymond is filing for divorce. All in all, it's a bad start to the day, which will become more interesting during the family's visit to the I.R.S. Before the visit, we see something strange on the laundromat's security monitors. Waymond suddenly becomes a different person and displays uncanny athletic ability. He flies around the room and jumps over tables in a speedy effort to fix the laundromat's change machine. What else can he do?

At the I.R.S. building, Evelyn, Waymond and Gong Gong have an appointment with Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis), a no-nonsense auditor who has heard every sad tale there is to tell. While in the elevator, Waymond displays more peculiar behavior, this time offering Evelyn a choice to continue with her appointment or hide in the janitor's closet. This choice creates another possibility for an alternate universe to develop. It also reveals the movie's true plot, about a battle being waged across the multiverse, with this version of Evelyn being the key to combat the threat. In what is called the alpha universe, scientists discovered how to contact other universes and transfer one's conscience into another version of oneself. Alpha Waymond temporarily takes over our Waymond's body and explains all the details to Evelyn, including how an experiment went wrong and produced a powerful entity called Jobu Tupaki, who can quickly cross over into other universes at will, without the need for the technology to make it happen. Jobu Tupaki is growing stronger and can manipulate matter. Waymond fears that Jobu's increasing powers will eventually destroy the multiverse. Only this version of Evelyn, the laundromat owner in a failing business and marriage, has the potential to stop Jobu Tupaki. 'Verse jumping, as it is called, allows one to access the skills and memories of one's other versions, enabling a myriad of knowledge and abilities to be transferred into the jumper. As Waymond poignantly explains, this version of Evelyn is the least successful—we are watching the end result of every decision she made not to push herself and pursue greatness. Therefore, this Evelyn is the one with the potential to rise to great heights and meet Jobu Tupaki face-to-face.

On the surface, Everything Everywhere All at Once is The Butterfly Effect on a larger scale with much more at stake. That 2004 film had Ashton Kutcher making small changes to history, resulting in changes to his present as he tried to repair the damage done by his attempt to save the life of someone he loved. Go deeper, and you'll realize that Evelyn's adventure isn't just a gimmick to tell a high-concept story of 'verse jumping to tap into the skills of her alternative selves (chef, martial artist, sign waver, singer, etc.) to fight a powerful enemy; it also encapsulates the immigration experience for many people coming to the United States. In other realities, she and her husband immigrated to the U.S., likely lured by the country's reputation for rewarding hard work with a solid middle-class lifestyle. It doesn't work out that way for everyone. A different decision here and there can mean the difference between success and failure. Nothing is handed out; nothing is guaranteed. Now, faced with an emotionally distant wife, Waymond is the one initiating divorce. 'Verse jumping allows Evelyn to explore what might have been. If she had stayed home and not married Waymond, then she could have been a famous actress. Seeing herself on the red carpet surrounded by paparazzi is intoxicating. Many of those lives are desirable, especially as seen through the eyes of the least successful version of Evelyn.

In the movie star life, she meets Waymond years after their split. When Evelyn 'verse jumps, a little of our Evelyn's life leaks into her target, so that movie star Evelyn gets confused and talks about operating a laundromat and doing taxes. Waymond, not aware of this timeline, expresses that he could see himself living above a laundromat and doing taxes with her. Time with the one you love is time well spent. As Evelyn comes to learn Jobu Tupaki's plan, she goes on a mindboggling trip to a universe in which life never evolved. It's a cleansing experience. Anything is better than this. Life is worth living, even if it involves an unglamorous job. Her father, difficult as he may be, still took the time to fly to the States. Her daughter, in a stage of rebellion, is moody but not distant. The only thing missing is Evelyn herself. While the details of Waymond's decision to file for divorce are not revealed, we gather that she became emotionally detached at some point. 'Verse jumping shows her how things could have been different, but Jobu's cosmic bagel (her way of coping with an erratic existence) snaps her out of her funk.

Directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert had been working on this script for a long time, fine-tuning it and giving it purpose. It's exciting, imaginative and visually spectacular. Michelle Yeoh displays tremendous range here. Her dramatic performance is right on the mark, but as an action star, Yeoh can still dazzle in her late 50s. Whether it's fighting Jobu Tupaki, her goons or Alpha Gong Gong's (yes, there's an alpha version of him as well) army, Yeoh showcases her incredible physical attributes. I was especially glad to see Ke Huy Quan again. Largely out of the public eye since appearing in The Goonies, Quan plays Waymond as a hyper but loving father and husband. When he presents his divorce papers to Evelyn, he doesn't do so lightly. I did not recognize Jamie Lee Curtis as the ball-busting I.R.S. auditor. Deirdre is worn out and tired. She gladly points out her trophies, shaped like butt plugs and awarded for all the "bullshit" she has seen. Everything Everywhere All at Once captures the Chinese immigrant experience and how it can end up in a variety of ways, and the movie wraps it up in a science fiction action adventure that probes the mind's desire for happiness.

© 2022 Silver Screen Reviews