Everyone Says I Love You (1996) – His Review August 7, 2006

Dir. Woody Allen
Starring Natasha Lyonne, Drew Barrymore, Edward Norton, Alan Alda, Goldie Hawn,

Movies focusing on a quirky family tend to be fun, there’s a lot of dynamics to work with. Everyone Says I Love You starts off in that familiar place, but branches off and follows some of the family-members’ search for love. It’s not really a romantic comedy, more a comedy about romance and love.

The tongue-in-cheek narration by Natasha Lyonne is just one of the movie clichés used to their fullest, we also get some very Allen-esque neuroses (yes, plural), a rebellious teenage son, dates in romantic cityscapes, and a happy ending. No, I don’t think that’s much of a spoiler. It may not all be laugh-out-loud funny, but it will make you smile, as everything seems to be twisted to be just a bit off kilter.

Oh yeah, it’s also a musical in case you didn’t notice the category. There’s nothing to critique about that aspect, it works very well with the rest of the movie. It can probably be seen as a spoof on musicals, but most jokes have a seed of truth anyway. And it is quite impressive to see scenes this long with no cuts, much less song and dance numbers. It shows some of the love that went into making this movie I suppose.

This is His review, you can read Her review here

Keywords: Woody Allen, Family, Pastiche

Everyone Says I Love You (1996) – Her Review August 7, 2006

Dir. Woody Allen
Starring Natasha Lyonne, Drew Barrymore, Edward Norton, Alan Alda, Goldie Hawn,

Although the title would tend to imply differently, this is not a romantic comedy, in fact it isn’t romantic at all, but it is funny. It instead takes a look at love and romance in a satirical way by going a bit over the top and looks back at a time when love at the movies was simple and cute and a great excuse for anyone to break out into a song and dance routine.

The movie is narrated by D.J. Berlin, (Natasha Lyonne) who plays Joe Berlin’s and Stephie Dandridge’s (Woody Allen and Goldie Hawn) daughter and Bob Dandridge’s (Alan Alda) step-daughter.

Through her eyes, we see her family and their love ups and downs. We see their misguided but well-intentioned decisions including her own. It’s like the title says: “Everyone says I love you”… and although they may mean it when they say it, they often say it lightly. Don’t get me wrong, this is not at all a melancholic or dramatic movie that will get you down; instead it pokes fun at our ideas of love and romance just like in the old movies back when you simply whisk off the person you love to Paris or Venice, The dialogue is fast and witty, which is to be expected in a Woody Allen Movie.

This movie surprised me as I was not expecting a musical especially not one where we are thrown back into the sounds of the 30’s and 40’s… The first dance scene make me smirk, because, as in all golden-era musicals, the setting at the jewelers had a vast amount of floor room… something we always laugh about old musicals … I could just feel a dance number coming up… and I was not disappointed. Everyone dances in this movie, from pregnant ladies to cripples, to costumed trick-or-treating children heck, even dead people… and it’s all in good fun.

What I missed in this movie was perhaps a bit of heart and warmth. I like comedies (doesn’t everyone?) but I want to feel something with at a least one person in a movie.. I want someone to attach my emotions to and either get a bit choked up or at least cheer them on or have a “YAY!” moment. I missed that here. It was fun but not the type of movie I would put on my list of movies to be seen more than once.

This is Her review, you can read His review here

Keywords: Woody Allen, Family, Pastiche