Everyone Says I Love You (1996)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Better Late Then Never

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

A New York girl sets her father (Woody Allen) up with an ugly woman (Julia Roberts) in a shaky marriage while her half sister gets engaged.For the most part, I am a fan of Woody Allen's work. I like the intelligent humor, and although he has gone through a few different phases, he seems to be good in a variety of different ways. This film was claimed to be among the "10 best of 1996" according to several sources.Personally, it may be one of the best of 1996, but I would not put it among Woody's best. Not even among his 10 best. I still liked it, especially the musical number with the ghosts. Nice touch. And this is the sort of role we never see Edward Norton in (but probably should). But it just was not as good as some of Woody's other work, and a bit of it seemed forced. The Republican kid was just too much of a caricature to even really be funny.

Every now and then acclaimed directors of comedies and dramas venture into the movie musical genre and varying rates of success were achieved...Sidney Lumet really tripped up with The Wiz as did John Huston with Annie and Richard Attenborough with A Chorus Line Sir Carol Reed did yeomen service to Oliver!, Milos Foreman triumphed with Hair and Norman Jewison did a decent job with Jesus Christ Superstar. One director I never imagined making a musical was Woody Allen but even Woody ventured into this forbidden territory with 1996's Everyone Says I Love You, A sophisticated romp with the same kind of loopy characters Woody usually provides us with, except here, they do occasionally burst into song and dance, despite the fact that several of the cast members can't sing. I have to admit that I do like the fact that the Woodmiester chose to cast actors who fit the characters and not just actors who can sing and dance.The film stars Goldie Hawn and Alan Alda as the head of an affluent upper west side family eagerly anticipating the wedding of her daughter and his stepdaughter (Drew Barrymore) to the heir apparent of another wealthy family (Edward Norton) who are thrown for a loop when Barrymore falls for an ex-con (Tim Roth) who Hawn has invited to their home for dinner as a gesture of bleeding heart liberalism. As always Woody blends multiple stories to great effect, the other primary one being Woody's role as Hawn's ex, whose daughter (Natasha Lyonne) has accidentally overheard a lot of information about a woman (Julia Roberts) who Woody meets in Paris and feeds him information about her in order to romance her.I think Woody made a wise choice in not employing an original score and using classic old songs for the characters to sing and the actors do their own singing (except for Barrymore), which I think adds a touch of realism to the unexpected musical interludes. There is some imaginative choreography by Graciela Daniele with Norton and Lyonne's production number in a jewelry store being a stand out. There is also a dance number at the film's denouement with Woody and Goldie that can only be described as magical.Musical numbers aside, Woody's screenplay is rich with the sophisticated wit we have come to expect from Woody, there's just a little less of it because of the musical numbers. Woody has always had exquisite taste in music, a key element in all of his films so I guess his journey into this genre shouldn't be completely unexpected, but, I think the results are pretty much a mixed bag and the film is suggested for hardcore Woody-philes only.

I really liked this film! They do not make musicals any more in those old fashion ways any more. And what a cast of actors! All of them were fantastic, but somehow Alan Alda and Woody Alen stick out! How could they not make people like Alan Alda more often? I mean the little greys. They clone, right? Perfect actors like Alan Alda could not be conceived in the normal way. I figure he is cloned ;) Dialogues are fantastic so are the music pieces. All in all if you want to put a smile on your face, and take a trip in a world where most of people never venture, make sure you see this film.

What a disappointment but I have to say that I knew from the first scene that this would not be one of his best. The songs are extremely average, nothing spectacular about them at all! And most of the characters are uninteresting shells.Some of the scenes (in fact most of them) seem like early rehearsal. Especially the parts with Tim Roth who usually is a very talented actor.To make things worse there's just a few funny jokes in here. In fact other than the narration from Natasha Lyonne, a few decently funny moments between Alda and his republican son and Allens regular character + a dance group consisting of Grouco Marx look-a-likes are the only worthwhile parts of the film.It felt extremely uninspired and rather annoying at times. What was the Julia Robers sub-plot for example was extremely unfunny and just plain annoying.It seemed like this film didn't know what to make fun of or how to do it. Most of the time the dialog is just tame and uninteresting and it just seems like it tries so hard without making it.That said Natasha Lyonne and Alan Alda was great. Allen was good but weaker than usual. Again a few funny moments. I actually laughed out loud once or twice but overall this was just decent and by far Woody Allens weakest film.