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 the three cities. These people include 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; and a recently released prison inmate, Charles Ferry, who is inserted between Skyler and Holden, resulting in their breakup.
Helen Miles Singers: Helen Miles, Arlene Martell, Emily Bindiger, Cindy Cobitt, Al Dana, Kevin DeSimone, Paul Evans, Chrissy Faith, Jeff Lyons, Michael Mark, Jenna Miles, Robert Ragaini, Lenny Roberts, Annette Sanders, Terry Textor, Vaneese Thomas and Ashley H. Wilkinson
Music
The film takes classic songs and fits them into an updated scenario, and in some cases with unexpected dance routines.
"Just You, Just Me" — Edward Norton
"My Baby Just Cares For Me" — Edward Norton/Natasha Lyonne
"Recurrence/I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All" — Dick Hyman/Olivia Hayman
"Makin' Whoopee" — Tim Jerome
"Venetian Scenes/I'm Through With Love" — Dick Hyman/Woody Allen
"All My Life" — Julia Roberts
"Just You, Just Me" — Dick Hyman and the New York Studio Players
"Cuddle Up a Little Closer" — Billy Crudup/Sanjeev Ramabhadran
"Hooray for Captain Spaulding/Vive Le Capitaine Spaulding" — The Helen Miles Singers
"I'm Through with Love" — Goldie Hawn/Edward Norton
"Everyone Says I Love You" — 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. Allen is a well-known Groucho Marx fan. Marx's theme song from Animal Crackers "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" is featured, sung in French by a chorus of Groucho Marx's. Songs, film score, and subsequent album recorded, mixed, and co-produced with Dick Hyman by Roy Yokelson.
Release
Box office
The film was released theatrically in North America on December 8, 1996 on three screens. Its opening weekend gross was $131,678. 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."
