Always the intrepid storyteller, Steven Soderbergh proves an excellent match for brilliant short fiction writer Deborah Eisenberg in her first produced screenplay,. Much like the author, the main character here is a celebrated novelist who publishes infrequently and pays punctilious attention to every word, providing a succulent role for Meryl Streep.
Establishing a lively rhythm of short scenes laced with intriguing details, Soderbergh opens with vignettes introducing each of the main characters in the Fall of 2019, with chapter headings such as"Alice, New York." The writer's outsize spectacles magnify Streep's eyes in a way that makes her seem to be constantly judging, although a disarming softness also surfaces at times beneath Alice's distracted self-importance and affected manner.
. That book is a sore point for Roberta, who believes the disastrous breakdown of her marriage served as the basis for the protagonist, Rowena, and that Alice owes her for the damage it inflicted on her life. While Alice makes vague statements about reconnecting"the gang of three … to pick up the conversation where we left off," Roberta suspects she has been asked along to serve up plot fodder through details of her life in the intervening years.
This seems to suit Roberta fine; she brushes off Alice's suggestion that they meet for a drink without even inventing an excuse. Dressed by costumer Ellen Mirojnick in a tacky Texan wardrobe , Bergen is like a bloodhound sniffing out well-heeled men on the ship and mostly encountering crashing bores.
Streepers are excited with The Prom but don't forget Let Them All Talk. 😄