Unless you have been living under a rock, you must have heard about the ‘multiverse’ about a zillion times by now. While the fantasy cinematic genre has been flirting with time travel and all its eccentricities for ages, trust Marvel to ‘mainstream’ it. But this time, David has shown Goliath how it is done. Everything Everywhere All at Once, created in a fraction of the budget of MCU’s 2022 hit Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, is a lesson for the mega superhero franchise on how to blend the infinite possibilities of cosmogenesis with a heartwarming story.
Produced by the Russo brothers and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert—famously called the ‘Daniels’—Everything Everywhere All at Once is a 139-minute ingenious cocktail of everything—madness, spontaneity, emotion, fun and mind-bending action—splattered everywhere all at once. If you are a hardcore Marvel fan, I’d urge you to park your biases outside the theatre before you enter. You might appreciate the pure genius of Daniels and actor Michelle Yeoh. Yeoh is carving a different tangent for herself—first with Crazy Rich Asians (2018), then Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) and now this one.
The film is centred around Evelyn Wang (Yeoh), a Chinese-American immigrant running a laundromat in California. Tensions are at an all-time high as her father Gong Gong (James Hong) is travelling from China to meet the family on his birthday. He never approved of Evelyn’s husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) ). Now, Evelyn is eager to present her perfect family. But little does she know that her family is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. Waymond wants a divorce. Gong Gong is oblivious to his granddaughter Joy’s (Stephanie Hey) sexuality. The traces of conflict become apparent as Joy invites her girlfriend, much to her mother’s discontent. And to top it all, Evelyn is also being audited by revenue agent Deirdre Beaubeirdra (Jamie Lee Curtis).
Amid these multiple moments of chaos, Evelyn encounters a different version of Waymond in her husband’s body, who travelled from somewhere called the ‘Alphaverse’. A different version of her exists in parallel universes bifurcating from every choice she has ever made. The one we see on the scene has struggled the most, and somehow is the key to saving the existing universe.
From hereon begins a wacky comedy drama peppered with metaphysical multiverse fantasy. It is an extraordinary tale of trauma and survival of a seemingly ordinary woman.
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Daniels’ universe
The Daniels are only a film old, with Everything Everywhere All at Once being their second directorial venture. If their maiden project was any proof—Daniel Radcliffe played a farting corpse in the 2016 black comedy Swiss Army Knife — Kwan and Scheinert like to experiment with contemporary templates and push the envelope.
In one scene, we discover that Evelyn and her fellow universe residents have hot dogs as fingers. In another universe, a seemingly meek Evelyn is a skilled martial artist. Even Waymond, Joy and Deirdre have their variants armed with astounding abilities as opposed to their selves in the existing universe.
But it is not the magnanimity and bizarre multiverse that elevates the film. Of course, that is the fancy exterior packaging. But as you unwrap the layers, there lies a story of love, compassion, acceptance, hope and forgiveness—that, there, is the strength of the Daniels.
Everything Everywhere All at Once comes with the whole shebang, but at the core of it lies the soul of the film—the intergenerational trauma of a woman and by extension, her family.
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Michelle Yeoh — grace, grit and perfection
Every film industry has a certain set of actors who can do no wrong on the screen. It is as if an extra effort is needed on their part to be horrible or do a shoddy job. For me, Meryl Streep, Olivia Colman, Cate Blanchett, and Emma Thompson are right up there. It wouldn’t be incorrect to say that Yeoh belongs to the same category too.
As Evelyn, she doesn’t just play one woman but different facets (what ifs) of her personality. Much like her character, Yeoh effortlessly verse-jumps from one role to another, with an equal measure of ferocity, grace, and conviction.
Not to forget the marvellous Jamie Lee Curtis, who is every bit annoying and scary as the revenue officer, and the exceptionally gifted Ke Huy Quan, who is the wind beneath Yeoh’s wings.
If you are overwhelmed with lazily conceived Marvel products (Thor: Love and Thunder and SheHulk, to name a few) but are still in the mood for a ride through the multiverse, Everything Everywhere All at Once is for you. The Russo Brothers, perhaps, should hire the Daniels to resurrect the new MCU phase. Or better yet, just induct Evelyn as the next Avenger.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)