Everything Everywhere All at Once came crashing into our lives earlier this year, and I know I’m still not okay—mainly because it has one of the most romantic lines of all time that also crushed my heart into a million pieces. While the plot of the film revolves around laundromat owner Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) going through different universes in order to stop the evil known as Jobu Tupaki and trying to fix the relationship she lost between herself and her daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), there is another relationship of the utmost importance: that of Evelyn and her husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan).
Their relationship isn’t perfect, and throughout the movie, we see multiple universes where it doesn’t work out, but it is at the core of Evelyn’s journey. Waymond helps guide her into this journey by being the first to explain to her what is happening with the jumping between universes, though Waymond and Evelyn are sometimes married in the film’s alternate universes and sometimes, they’re not.
That’s how we end up with one of the most romantic lines of all time. The writer/director duo known as Daniels (comprised of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) brought us a movie about relationships, a flawed woman who is sad about the state of her life trying to find a new purpose, and a journey through the infinite possibilities life makes for us.
The quote that will be in a million wedding speeches
In one of the universes that Evelyn accesses, she’s an actress. Instead of living her life with Waymond, she followed her dreams, and with that came a lack of Waymond in her future. Still, she sees him after attending a movie premiere, and the two have a conversation and at the end of the film, when the fight between Joy and Evelyn has reached a breaking point. At that point, Evelyn sees flashes of the important moments of her life with Waymond, taking us back to the universe where she followed her dreams instead.
He says to her, “In another life, I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you,” and if that isn’t the greatest declaration of love in cinema at LEAST this year, I don’t know what is.
It’s so beautiful because the entire movie, Evelyn brushes off her own reality and almost regrets her decisions. But throughout it, Waymond tried to voice his own upset but didn’t want to hurt anyone. He wanted his life to be easy and happy, and when it wasn’t, he took the blame onto himself, and even in that last scene, he says he thinks it’s his fault, and it’s a testament to him as a character that while his reaction to his relationship varies in all the universes, he’s always in love with Evelyn above all.
And really, isn’t that what we’re all searching for? Someone who will willingly just do the boring and mundane life things with us and enjoy it? That’s real romance.
(featured image: A24)
