Recencies van critici

The hardest thing to replicate, for any novice, will be the surreptitious ease with which, in the latest film, Soderbergh shifts gear. Gradually, against all expectation, we find ourselves in a serious and somewhat Jamesian drama, strewn with riddles.

As "Let Them All Talk"... chugs along, it becomes increasingly involving, and then doesn't really deliver a particularly Hollywood-style ending. Soderbergh also elicits wonderfully natural performances from his leads -- constructed with extensive improvisation... Aided by a jaunty Thomas Newman score, "Let Them All Talk" manages to be both fairly disposable and thoroughly entertaining.

"Let Them All Talk" is suffused with [a] sense of bittersweetness, aided by the ship’s predominantly gold color palette, taking the film beyond being a fleeting hang-out movie and into hidden depths. It’s a meditation on life and a touching ensemble picture, smuggled in by Streep’s star power and Soderbergh’s constant quest for innovation.

It’s “Wild Strawberries” for women of a certain age, and a big improvement over Soderbergh and Streep’s previous collaboration, the disjointed “The Laundromat”... While “Let Them All Talk” doesn’t quite have the snap of Soderbergh’s “High Flying Bird,” it’s just as much a film of ideas about talent and commerce and the responsibilities of the rich and powerful. And with a cast as talented as this one, the title itself provides a guidepost for how to tell this story.

“Let Them All Talk” is aptly named, because it’s full of stilted conversations, though they fail to captivate... And despite the talented actors onscreen, Soderbergh’s mannered direction lacks charisma and the characters lack chemistry.

What you won’t get from “Let Them All Talk” is some memorable moral inquisition into authors who mine others’ lives. It’s a shading one wishes at times was more defined considering the talent involved. But even when the mode is sketch, not full-on portrait or tableau, Soderbergh and company show a pleasurable amount of skill.

[One] of the smartest, funniest and most visually captivating movies of the year... “Let Them All Talk,” indeed. Please let them all talk for as long as they desire.

Making up your movie as you go along, to any extent, is always risky; the hope is that you’ll gain in playful spontaneity more than you’ll lose in artful precision. In this case, the gamble mostly pays off, even if a lot of what happens does feel slightly random.

It’s a film that will be, well, too talky for some people... but there’s something invigorating about a movie that’s more concerned about well-rounded, genuine people than traditional Hollywood archetypes. And the movie's casual, hang-out feel is buoyed by Soderbergh’s top-notch craftsmanship. This could have been totally shapeless in the wrong hands.

“Let Them All Talk” is a drolly successful example of experimental filmmaking. The experiment is that it’s a genteel, sneakily reflective comedy — stateroom-comedy subdivision... The movie at hand is small, I suppose, and it may not be enough for some audiences. It’s enough for me.

“Let Them All Talk” — which wanders, scenically, more than it arrives at a destination — feels closer to a pleasure cruise than a crossing. It takes us someplace, yes, but the trip is just this side of transporting.

"Let Them All Talk" is a warm, enjoyable trifle, yet it has a personal edge that suggests an artist who continues to wrestle with the nature of his work.