All of Me (1984)

Plot of All of Me: Be prepared to suspend your disbelief. Roger Cobb is a lawyer who aspires to be either a partner in the law firm where he works, or a jazz guitarist. He gets the job of administering the affairs of Edwina Cutwater a rich woman who has a heart problem which will result in her dying at any moment. Cobb  finds out that Edwina has arranged with an eastern guru to transfer her soul when she dies into the body of Terry Hoskins an attractive young woman who has accepted that her soul will become part of the universe. In order to continue to have her assets available Cobb is to alter Edwina’s will to make Terry inheritor. Cobb smells a rat, but nevertheless in a sequence of odd events, Edwina dies and her soul is transferred to the guru’s bowl, which falls out if a window onto Cobb’s head, resulting in Edwina being in Cobb’s body. It takes time before the two get used to each other, and when Cobb starts to get together with Terry anything can happen. But Terry learns, to her surprise, that the body transfer has worked (in part) and so tries to send the guru away. Will Cobb and Edwina be locked together for ever?

Content: There are moments when sex is intended, on one occasion Terry enjoying being spanked, but there is no nudity, and in Cobb’s head he and Edwina talk about sex quite a bit. There are scenes of Cobbs boss canoodling with quite elderly ladies and as a result Cobb being required to defend him in court. Once the bowl containing Edwina’s soul has hit Cobb on the head  he has to fight with Edwina for control of his body, and it seems that she controls the right hand side and he the left hand side. When he looks in the mirror he sees her (now a system much used by directors to show two people in one body). There is an extended joke when he goes for a pee. Later there are times when Edwina’s soul is on the move between various containers, and other people. But easy to follow.

A View: This film was well liked by the critics at the time, particularly praising the performances of the stars. If anything it seemed to me that Lily Tomlin, who is terrific, had a bit of a job to indicate that she was at death’s door. But the whole thing rolls along, skirting what might be allowable in a family oriented film, with a whole load of quotable dialogue. So despite its age, quite a lot of fun.

Fun Fact: Steve Martin and Victoria Tennant were to become an item and marry in 1986. They were together for eight years.