Evelyn Wang and her husband Waymond run a laundry. Times are tough and they're in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service. There's also some niggle with their daughter and her father is a constant source of belittlement and scorn. Now Waymond wants a divorce. Could things have turned out differently for Evelyn, maybe in a parallel universe?

The plot summary for this movie intrigued me immensely: the idea of exploring how things might work out if you'd plotted a different course or, more broadly, the idea of parallel realities. The actual product, however, is far less engaging or coherent.

The lack of engagement begins immediately. The Wangs' everyday life is a manic, unfocussed existence and just following this for the first 20 minutes or so was fairly annoying. It doesn't get any better once the multiverse concept is introduced, this just being an excuse for random detours and well-choreographed but meaningless action scenes.

It's like a typical pretentious concept-driven sci fi/fantasy movie: paper over the lack of plot with a concept and developments that are so radical and in-your-face that viewers are fooled into thinking there's something clever there, when there isn't. Then, to make it seem even more important, have the movie go for 140 minutes when 100 minutes would have been sufficient.

Every now and again there is a profound moment but due to the preceding scenes being all empty random action there's no context and the impact is diluted.

Disappointing.