Review of They All Laughed (1981) by Stephen M — 16 Mar 2008

I think I am the only person I know who likes this film; and most of my friends deride me for liking it. Of course, I was destined to like it because of my devotion to Audrey Hepburn and to Ben Gazzara and to New York City, around which the movie was shot. I admit that it is flawed; it can be slow and laxadasical at times. It can be a little implausible and hard to follow at times. It tries to be the kind of farce that Bogdonavich made using San Francisco as the backdrop, with What's Up Doc? It does not come, remotely, close to being what What's Up Doc was; and yet, if you take it as a separate entity, forgetting that the director is the man that did What's Up Doc and if you look at the film on its' own merits, you will see something unique. There is a commaraderie that this cast of characters has that makes them a family. They drift in and out of each others' lives and days in a way that, I have found, New Yorkers do. I am not certain if it happens this way in other cities because I do not live in other cities. I only know that the people in this movie are the people I see every day; and for that reason I relate to them and I love them.

Then, of course, there is the fact that Audrey Hepburn is so incredibly magical.