“Everything Everywhere All At Once” is a film that warrants multiple viewings. There simply is no way to absorb all that it has to offer in one sitting. The movie is delightfully subversive, leading you on what you think is one journey only to morph into something else.

Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) co-owns and runs a coin-op laundromat with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan). She is going through receipts in anticipation of meeting with an IRS auditor later that day. In the evening the family, including her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) and her recently arrived father Gong Gong (James Hong), will be hosting the annual customer appreciation celebration event at the facility.

While going through the receipts, she finds a divorce decree from her husband. Too busy to deal with that issue right away, she and Joy deal with problems inside the laundromat, which is below the small family apartment. Her husband likes to put googly eyes on various items, which annoys Evelyn.

Her father does not know that Joy has a female lover. Neither parent wants to inform him of this fact, so she is characterized as Joy’s friend.

While in the elevator at the IRS office, Waymond seemingly becomes another person. Claiming to be from the Alphaverse, he states that in that universe Evelyn designed a way to jump across the various multiverses. The evil Jobu Tupaki unfortunately has used this power to destroy. They need Evelyn to save the multiverses. She is taught how to jump between worlds.

As she does so, she sees alternate lives that she could have led. Particularly moving is one in which she became a famous singer and actress after rejecting her fiancée Waymond’s request to run away to America. Their encounter later in that life is moving and poignant.

Meanwhile in this universe the family sits with IRS agent Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis) as she laments their chaotic business expenses. She gives them until the evening to get their items in order or she will seize the laundromat for back taxes.

As everyone begins to depart, Deirdre approaches them and Evelyn, confused by alternate Waymond, attacks her. Security is called and all hell breaks loose.

The IRS office becomes a scene of continuing mayhem. Characters are subdued and then revived with new powers. Evelyn herself is able to tap into various powers as she suddenly has fighting skills that she never knew she had. Waymond is alternately puzzled as her husband and then not when he is Alphaverse Waymond.

But all is not as it seems. The discoveries to come about who Jobu Tupaki really is and a giant bagel lead Evelyn to seriously reconsider her life choices and her relationships with her family.

This all leads somewhere and it does so in a beautiful tour de force ending that is completely satisfying.

No review can do this movie true justice in terms of how complicated the parts become. The level of detail, subtle nuances, and references to other films bombard the viewer with more than can be assimilated at one time. I honestly can admit that I have no idea how much I missed trying to keep up with the flow of the plot.

Flow is a very good word to describe this picture. Even jumping around from time to time, place to place, it is like watching one of your own dreams unfold.

The greatest success of the movie is how the viewer gets sucked into what appears to be a standard unlikely-hero science-fiction film when in fact you are being led in another direction entirely. I wish that spoilers would permit me to reveal where the story ends up.

Themes of regret and lost opportunities resonate throughout the work. Would you make the same choices if you could have a do-over? Does knowing about an alternate “you” make you a different person in this universe? How do you live with the choices you have made?

Another theme is the difficulty of family interactions, let alone human relationships in general. How do you break the scripts that you have fallen into when dealing with your family?

And then there is just the kick-ass fun of how cool it would be to have different superpowers or even different ordinary abilities at your beck and call. Evelyn takes great delight in suddenly being a martial arts expert, for example.

There are numerous great scenes and running gags. I loved the universe where Joy and Evelyn were both rocks talking to each other with captions. The chef who has a raccoon hidden under his toque a la “Ratatouille” was a hoot. Even a butt-plug has a role to play in this weird picture.

The acting is universally superb. Jamie Lee Curtis as the frowzily dressed and dowdy Deirdre is wonderful. When an alternate version of her as a menacing enemy comes into play it is a wonder to behold her transformation. A later scene of camaraderie with Evelyn also merits mention.

Michelle Yeoh gets to relive some of her past achievements in her fight scenes. Her range of emotions from being overwhelmed to sheer happiness show her fantastic range as an actor.

Stephanie Hsu becomes more important as the film progresses. Spoilers do not permit me to comment on certain aspects of her performance. But suffice it to say that she is a perfect foil to Yeoh.

Ke Huy Quan has a smaller part to play as the long-suffering husband and his alternate version. His performance as the jilted suitor meeting Evelyn later in life in one of the multiverses is noteworthy.

The sets and costumes are fantastic. The choreography of the fight scenes is superb.

In this universe, I give this film 5 out of 5 stars.

Presenting a hilarious and big-hearted sci-fi action adventure about an exhausted Chinese American woman (Michelle Yeoh) who can’t seem to finish her taxes.

STARRING Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., with James Hong and Jamie Lee Curtis
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert