‘Let Them All Talk’: watch it and weep

All aboard QM2: Lucas Hodges plays Meryl Streep’s nephew in Let Them All Talk

A year has gone by since I last took a cruise – an anniversary I can’t say I’m exactly celebrating. That was a magnificent river cruise aboard Uniworld’s Ganges Voyager II, combined with a stay at a remote village in Udaipur with Uniworld’s Me to We program. India is one of my favourite countries – but anyway, that’s another story.

While contemplating the absence of ships in my life, last weekend I was flicking through Foxtel to find something to watch (it was raining, so why not?) and came across Let Them All Talk, a movie starring Meryl Streep, Dianne Wiest and Candice Bergen – and Cunard’s classic liner Queen Mary 2. How could I resist?

The three superstar actors play three long-time college friends, whose lives have gone in very different directions since they were a carefree gang of three. Alice (Streep), an acclaimed literary novelist, invites Roberta (Bergen) and Susan (Wiest) to accompany her on a transatlantic crossing from New York to Southampton. Alice’s millennial nephew Tyler (Lucas Hodges) is onboard as Alice’s personal helpmeet; during the crossing he falls for Alice’s new agent Karen (Jessica Chan), who is secretly spying on Alice to see whether she will deliver a much-anticipated new manuscript.

Suffice to say, there are revelations from the past, conflicts that may or may not be resolved, a touch of shipboard romance and some wonderful dialogue (mostly improvised and often bitingly funny) between the main characters. Director Stephen Soderbergh, known for his experimental productions, shot Let Them All Talk himself; because many scenes were filmed in the exclusive Queens Grill areas, the few behind-the-scenes film crew dressed the part in dinner jackets and of course the stars were in full glamour mode.

Cunard aficionados will thrill to memories of the film’s familiar real-life sets – QM2’s gracious library, the Planetarium, Royal Court Theatre, boardgames nooks and even the casino, where Roberta brazenly stalks men who might be candidates for the role of her next rich husband. My heart skipped a beat watching the normally mundane process of embarkation at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal – glimpses of Cunard’s bellboys in their red-and-black uniforms and signature hats were almost too much to bear.

The three Cunard queens are currently in UK waters, with sailings set to restart in May this year and the fourth, as yet unnamed ship, is being built in Fincantieri’s Naples shipyard. For more information, see cunard.com.