“Everything Everywhere All at Once” An unprecedented multiverse movie that breaks the curse of “family” *Note! Contains spoilers.

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2023.03.23Akira Murayama

Cookie smiles born from the couple's memories

It's almost a miracle that Waymond continues to be so honest and good even as he accumulates darkness like stagnation, but his personality is also reflected in the cookies he gives to Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis), an auditor at the National Tax Agency. It's showing. Even Deirdre, a straight-laced person with a bureaucratic personality, accepts the cookies Waymond brings her without hesitation, saying, ``They're delicious.''

Isn't it bribery to give souvenirs to officials? Putting that question to one side, this cookie is a classic sweet called ``Chinese Almond Cookie'' in the United States, and can be easily found in Chinatowns in Japan. The taste differs more depending on the store than it appears, and I prefer the taste at Chongqing Hanten. However, what Waymond has prepared is not a ready-made item bought at a store. For a brief moment in the movie, you can see the baked cookies on the baking sheet, and when they bring them to the National Tax Agency, they put them in a bowl-shaped Tupperware. In other words, those cookies were homemade by Waymond.

The standard recipe for the widely popular almond cookies is to add just one almond. However, Waymond has two almonds on top and a smiley face drawn on his mouth. Like the Googly Eye, this is probably an arrangement recipe born out of Waymond's nature of trying to bring more fun and smiles into everyday life.

In fact, the origin of the smiley face on this cookie is clearly indicated. In the aforementioned flashback of Evelyn's life, there is a scene where Evelyn and Waymond are in an elementary school classroom when they were children. Evelyn has been doodling a smiling boy in her notebook, and even added a heart symbol as proof of her affection. Waymond sees it and says, ``I like that picture.'' Isn't it safe to think that what Evelyn was drawing was a portrait of Waymond?

In other words, the cookies that Waymond makes (whether unconsciously or not) imitate Waymond himself smiling at Evelyn. Considering that Waymond was a pathetic husband and unreliable father, but he melted the hearts of Evelyn and Deirdre with his profound kindness and optimism, those cookies are as important props as bagels and googly eyes.

However, was the big story of the existence of the multiverse really necessary for this story of a small family reconciliation? If I were to express my personal opinion, I would say that it was absolutely necessary. Often, strained family relationships become entangled with trivial misunderstandings and disconnected values between generations and cultures, and become even more troublesome as time passes. If a parent and child cannot choose each other, the wounds are even deeper, and the trauma of those involved cannot be easily healed.

It would not be wrong to say that the ending, where Evelyn and her friends come together and settle down, is an opportunistic belief in family. However, Daniels' real intention may be to contrast the problems of a family, which can be found anywhere, on the same scale as the unprecedented crisis of the entire universe. This feels like the perfect choice as a metaphor for the big business of "facing family and yourself," and I can trust Daniels as a filmmaker who depicts (and continues to depict) loneliness and heartache. That seems like a reason.

Interview and text: Akira Murayama

Born in 1971. Writes articles for magazines, newspapers, movie sites, etc. Representative of “ShortCuts,” a review site for distribution-based works.

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"Everything Everywhere All at Once"

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