Remember cruise ships? Even if you’ve never been on one, there’s a good chance you won’t be on one anytime soon. It’s one of many industries mostly taken away from us during the pandemic. In fact, when/if this is all over, they may never look the same. But that’s where movies come in: They allow us to experience lives we can’t lead, to watch others doing things we cannot, to show a time that may be bygone — like a world with safe cruise ships.
Enter Let Them All Talk. It’s the latest from the ever-prolific Steven Soderbergh, and, title be damned, its new trailer implies it’s more than a mere chat-a-thon. Meryl Streep plays a renowned author who, her latest manuscript soon due to its publisher, decides to take a restorative ocean voyage with old friends. Those would be Dianne Wiest and Candice Bergen — legends with 25 Oscar nominations and five wins between them. (Yes, most of the noms belong to Queen Meryl, namely 21. But don’t write off Wiest’s two wins.)
The trailer is filled with bon mots and promises of bickering, as well as supporting players Lucas Hedges and Gemma Chan. And then there’s Soderbergh, who can always be counted on to find new avenues for his diverse career. It’s about time he made a cruise ship movie — a genre that hasn’t been in vogue since the 1930s and whose last major entry appears to be 2011’s Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked. But if someone can make talkfest set aboard an ocean liner visually exciting, it’s Steven Soderbergh.
You can watch the trailer in the video above. Let Them All Talk hits HBO Max on December 10.