An incredibly exhilarating and exhaustive opening act inevitably gives way in the face of immense ambition and increasingly complex absurdities. Everything Everywhere All at Once has a strong emotional core and a great mind for comedy and action, but the overbearing nature of its aims frustratingly prevents all its pieces from clicking into place, inflating and exaggerating the events of its story until it’s all just too much to take in.

The first missteps come early, despite the initial  promise and excitement that accompanies it. The two directors lean on rigid sci-fi conventions to set the stage for their chaotic multiverse story, falling into the trappings of creating an overly complex world in need of extended expository dialogue just to make even a little bit of sense to the audience. The plainness of this plot setup wouldn’t seem so bad if, approximately halfway through the film, this whole narrative arc is flat out abandoned after it’s finished serving its purpose of establishing the themes of the film which will proceed to play out in a more abstract format. The abandonment of conventionality in favor of original routes is typically a favored direction, but by committing to a basic narrative structure to begin with, then discarding it without proper resolution, or even subversion, only adds to the confusion and general indulgence of the project. 

Indulgence is something Everything Everywhere All at Once struggles with throughout its runtime. Early on we’re given some truly exciting and impressive action sequences which exhibit virtuosic choreography and comedic sensibilities. Ke Huy Quan (returning to the screen for the first time in 20 years) gets to shine in this wonderful exhibition, but the fantastic nature of the film’s action spectacle soon wears thin, as silly antics and maddening fight scenes drag on to the detriment of further character development and narrative progression. There are so many balls being juggled at any given time here, but they are not being handled with equal rhythm. Important characters and themes are left lingering in the air while absurdist elements are continually shuffled around until their impact is completely diluted. 

Eventually, the other balls do come back into the fold, but by the time they’re implemented again their impact is greatly diminished. Once the basic sci-fi framework is discarded, the film delves deeper into its themes about family dynamics, personal reconciliation, generational trauma, and other such interconnected ideals. Some of these sentiments ring more resoundingly than others, with a handful feeling contradicted by sentiments proposed earlier in the film, thus making their ultimate statement seem somewhat hollow. There’s so much here the film wants to explore, but so often is seems to be stepping on its toes, stumbling to get the words out as it often repeats its sentiments or struggles to articulate them before eventually vomiting them forth in a kind of thematic word salad. 

The highlight of the film comes just before the beginning of the third act: a quiet scene cast in serene juxtaposition to the unending chaos the film otherwise provides. It’s a wonderfully calm moment in which the story is given a chance to breathe, and it can consider the weighty thoughts of its characters’ strifes with ample expression. It’s humorous and heartfelt, and absolutely original in its presentation, which is what the film is when it’s at its very best. It’s unfortunate there aren’t more moments like it, where simplicity can reign in the face of insurmountable chaos. Much of the film’s issues stem from overambition: a desire to depict everything, everywhere, all at once.

A leaner focus was required to package all its ideas here. There’s no question that the film has its heart in the right place, but the emotional resolutions don’t resonate completely because the path getting there is often unclear or overstated, and sometimes both at once. There’s too much to love, though, to write it off completely, and one can’t help but ire the maximalist intent to be so bizarre and so sincere while also being an action/sci-fi/adventure spectacle. It really is everything, everywhere, all at once, but it is inherently exhausting because of that, too. And, perhaps as could only be expected, not everything, everywhere, all at once, lands with succinct and fully articulate execution.