The Big Picture

• Everything Everywhere All at Once uses multiverse to explore personal growth, creating deeply compelling characters in the process.
• The film starring Michelle Yeoh delves into the paths not taken, showing how hopes and dreams define who we are.
• Unlike other multiverse tales, this film emphasizes emotional truths and character growth over spectacle and crossovers.

If you haven’t already noticed, there have been quite a few tales about multiverses as of late. From the box office smash Spider-Man: No Way Home to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The unfortunate reality is that many of these approaches to this narrative device have begun to feel derivative, even shallow in how they reduce their story to a gimmick for the purpose of crossovers while losing sight of their characters along the way. They are all about creating superficial applause moments of recognition without ever putting in the crucial effort and attention needed to build complex characters.

'Everything Everywhere All at Once' Uses the Multiverse to Show Personal Growth

Enter the brilliant film Everything Everywhere All at Once, a joyous and vibrant experience that also is one of the most moving pieces about family in recent memory. It is yet another original story from the directing duo known as Daniels that shows more of these stories can and should create compelling characters that thrive alongside the spectacle as opposed to being swallowed up by it. Central to this is that it stars the iconic Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang, a Chinese American who runs a laundromat business that is facing down a looming and rather ominous audit. Uncertain about how to connect with her husband, Ke Huy Quan's Waymond, and daughter, Stephanie Hsu's Joy, she is also grappling with regret about the path her own life has taken over the many years. What follows is a journey that expands out into the many paths Evelyn’s life could have taken, weaving together a visually magnificent cinematic kaleidoscope that is as stunning as it is driven by her growth as a character.

Obviously, Yeoh in the lead is going to ensure your film stands above any other just by her being there. However, and most importantly, she is also given good material to work with. Evelyn as a character is a multifaceted person, both strong in how she has worked to build a life for herself and troubled in how she works to find a connection with her family. She still clearly cares for both her husband and daughter yet has, like many of us, struggled to consistently show it. As the story becomes glorious in how over-the-top it all gets, the way it explores the quieter character moments are where it really shines. They all end up going hand-in-hand, ensuring a scene where characters become rocks with googly eyes is both hilarious in its absurdity while also being more emotionally resonant than anything seen on the big screen yet this year. The depths of the premise allow for a greater exploration of who Evelyn is as she reflects on all the various versions of herself that she could have been.

'Everything Everywhere All at Once' Uses the Multiverse to Show the Paths Not Taken

The multiverse then becomes a way in which the film digs deeper into the way all our hopes and dreams come to define us. Yes, there are incredible action sequences and visual gags that make full use of the potential of the various universes it is playing around in. However, this would lose all of its emotional impact if we didn’t have such well-written characters at the center of it all. Through it all, Evelyn and her multilayered journey of self-discovery are made integral to the experience. The beauty in how the film throws the entire kitchen sink of creativity at you not only doesn’t take away from this, it enhances it. It manages to strike a balance by revealing emotional truths about Evelyn and her family in the many unhinged moments that define the film. Notably, when the film begins she is left adrift and uncertain about what to do. When she falls into the rabbit hole of the infinite multiverse unfolding before her, she struggles in a manner that is equivalent to how she does with her own family. When the matriarch begins to gain control over the universe and her place in it, this is mirrored by her coming to a greater emotional understanding of how to connect with those she loves.

Compare that to a film like the aforementioned Spider-Man: No Way Home and the difference is stark. As noted in Collider’s review when that film came out, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man as a character “doesn’t grow between movies as much as he’s just got a different conflict, and it’s a conflict that frequently overshadows his personal stakes.” Sure, you get to see some older actors make returns as familiar faces, but that can’t replace good storytelling with complex portraits of its characters. A story about a multiverse can’t just be all that you have to offer, it has to provide something more in what it says about the characters and their respective journeys. That is what Everything Everywhere All at Once manages to achieve more than anything else before it as it goes out of its way to ensure that the growth of its characters is the focal point. The multiverse is but a tool to more deeply explore the family at the center.

The film works because of how the emotional and enthralling grounding point felt in Yeoh's compassionate portrayal of Evelyn ends up fitting in perfectly with the trip the film takes us on. Each new path she takes and destination she arrives at reveals something new, bringing us along with her as she finds a greater sense of connection with who she wants to be when left with the choice to be anyone. Rather than use the multiverse to create a shallow spectacle of big crossovers about comics or superheroes, we are taken deeper into the way it uncovers a greater understanding of the characters at their most vulnerable. It is an achievement that the film makes look easy, though it is very clearly not considering how rare of an experience it is. It raises the bar by being a film that is to be cherished in how committed it is to its characters, leaving you utterly floored at the people they become.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is now available to watch on Netflix in the U.S.

Watch on Netflix