Two servants rip away the white curtains, revealing a toroidal black hole: the Everything Bagel. As Evelyn stares into the Bagel, all versions of herself across the multiverse — whether they are sign spinners wearing lopsided pie hats, movie stars in ball gowns, or a member of a human-like species with sausages for fingers — come to the same conclusion: nothing matters.
Although the 2023 Best Picture Award winner “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” is expertly designed, with multitudes of different costumes, well-choreographed fight scenes and plenty of Asian American and LGBTQ+ representation, some aspects of the movie feel rushed or corny.
The film is a three-part science-fiction movie about Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), a Chinese immigrant who runs a laundromat in America with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) and their daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu). After eloping to America in pursuit of the “American Dream,” Evelyn and Waymond are met with hardship and poverty, a stark reality faced by many foreigners of similar backgrounds. It’s a much-needed break from the “Rich Asian” stereotype perpetuated by most other popular Asian films.
Early on in the movie, Joy, who is lesbian, expresses interest in coming out to her grandfather. Evelyn shuts her down and opts to introduce Joy’s girlfriend, Becky, as a “very good friend” instead. The tension between Evelyn and Joy over her sexuality is expertly set up to highlight Evelyn’s character growth throughout the film as she gradually learns to accept Joy for who she is.
While “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” provides an inclusive and distinctive portrayal of underrepresented groups, it falls short in the originality of some of its plot points, employing overused clichés for the sake of melodrama.
Evelyn is dragged into a multiversal conflict by Alpha Waymond, the version of her husband in the Alphaverse, the first universe to develop verse-jumping technology, allowing its inhabitants to enter the consciousness of their counterparts in other timelines. At the end of Part 1, Alpha Waymond is fatally injured and almost kisses Evelyn before he dies, despite knowing her for a few hours at most. This scene felt like an unnecessary romanticization of their relationship, existing solely to satisfy the trope of the “Last Kiss.”
Additionally, one of the central themes of the film — that life is boring and meaningless until you are touched by the Power of Love — could’ve come from a nihilistic Disney film.
“Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” has great visuals and a diverse cast, but its storytelling suffers from stale and irrelevant clichés, detracting from the otherwise innovative narrative.
