Paul Elliott’s review published on Letterboxd:
This comedy-drama shot over two weeks aboard the Queen Mary 2 during a crossing has a delicate narrative that frequently makes it come across more synonymous to an expanded promotional film for the transatlantic ocean liner than an actual movie. Steven Soderbergh, overseeing directorial duties and cinematography, ensures that everything looks incredible as it follows Alice. An acclaimed author played by Meryl Streep, on board the passenger ship making it's crossing from New York City to Southampton with her nephew and a few friends to accept a prestigious literary award in London.
Streep provides a terrific example of the understated work she can perform so magnetically as her character grapples with her unsettled past and the rest of the cast, including Lucas Hedges, Candice Bergen and Dianne Wiest, carousel around and generally enjoying themselves. Deborah Eisenberg's screenplay features plenty of room for the actors to improvise large amounts of their dialogue noticeably. The cast prevails as the chief remarkable component with their impromptu lines contributing some specific moments to the film which are effortlessly appreciated.
These moments, where fiction crosses with reality, frequently arrive at lengthy broodings on the art world and create a particular investment level within the film. However, they rarely off-balance the exhibition of actors relishing the food and drinks and just whooping it up nurturing an impression of overriding self-indulgence to the production. There's always something to appreciate in Soderbergh's films, and in light of it being just a few years ago that he was claiming that Side Effects was his last film, it's fantastic that he's still making movies.