Everyone Says I Love You

Plot

The emotions of an extended upper-class family in Manhattan are followed in song from NY to Paris and Venice. Various friends, lovers, acquaintances, and relatives act, interact, and sing, in New York, Venice, and Paris. Young lovers Holden and Skylar in Manhattan; Skylar's parents, Bob and Steffi; Joe, an ex-husband of Steffi; DJ, a daughter from the marriage of Joe and Steffi; Von, a lady whom Joe meets in Venice; a recently released prison inmate, Charles Ferry, who is inserted between Skyler and Holden, resulting in their breakup.

Music

The film takes classic songs and fits them into an updated scenario, and in some cases with unexpected dance routines. The choreography is lively and the actors and actresses do not look like professional dancers, which makes the music and dance more natural.

1. "Just You, Just Me" (Jesse Greer, Raymond Klages) — Edward Norton
2. "My Baby Just Cares For Me" (Walter Donaldson, Gus Kahn) — Edward Norton/Natasha Lyonne
3. "Recurrence/I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All" (Ray Henderson, Lew Brown, B.G. DeSylva) — Dick Hyman/Olivia Hayman
4. "Makin' Whoopee" (Donaldson, Kahn) — Tim Jerome
5. "Venetian Scenes/I'm Through With Love" (Kahn, Matt Malneck, Fud Livingston) — Dick Hyman/Woody Allen
6. "All My Life" (Sam Stept, Sidney Mitchell) — Julia Roberts
7. "Just You, Just Me" (Salsa Version) (Greer, Klages) — Dick Hyman and the New York Studio Players
8. "Cuddle Up a Little Closer" (Karl Hoschna, Otto Harbach) — Billy Crudup/Sanjeev Ramabhadran
9. "Looking at You" (Cole Porter) — Alan Alda
10. "Recurrence/If I Had You" (Ted Shapiro, Jimmy Campbell, Reg Connelly) — Dick Hyman/Tim Roth
11. "Enjoy Yourself (It's Later than You Think)" (Carl Sigman, Herb Magidson) — Patrick Crenshaw
12. "Chiquita Banana" (Leonard McKenzie, Garth Montgomery, William Wirges) — Christy Carlson Romano
13. "Hooray for Captain Spaulding/Vive Le Capitaine Spaulding" (Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, Philippe Videcoq) — The Helen Miles Singers
14. "I'm Through with Love" (Kahn, Malneck, Livingston) — Goldie Hawn/Edward Norton
15. "Everyone Says I Love You" (Kalmar, Ruby) — The Helen Miles Singers

Most of the performers sing in their own voices, with two exceptions: Goldie Hawn, who was told by Allen to intentionally sing worse because she sang too well to be believable as a normal person just breaking into song, and Drew Barrymore, who convinced Woody Allen that her singing was too awful even for the "realistic singing voice" concept he was going for. Her voice was dubbed by Allen regular Olivia Hayman.

The title song was written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, and was used as a recurring theme song in the Marx Brothers movie Horse Feathers (1932). Allen is a well-known Groucho Marx fan. Marx's theme song from Animal Crackers (1930) "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" is featured, sung in French by a chorus of Groucho Marx's.

Box office

The film was released theatrically in North America on 8 December 1996 on three screens. Its opening weekend gross was $131,678 ($43,892 per screen). It ended its North American run with $9,759,200.

Critical reception

The film was well received. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 79% "fresh" rating, based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's consensus states: "A likable, infectious musical, Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You is sometimes uneven but always toe-tapping and fun." Janet Maslin wrote a strongly positive review in the New York Times, describing the film as "a delightful and witty compendium of the film maker's favorite things."

Among the film's strongest detractors was Jonathan Rosenbaum, who described it as "creepy" and claimed "this characterless world of Manhattan-Venice-Paris, where love consists only of self-validation, and political convictions of any kind are attributable to either hypocrisy or a brain condition, the me-first nihilism of Allen's frightened worldview is finally given full exposure, and it's a grisly thing to behold."

Awards

The film was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the 54th Golden Globe Awards.