Thirty minutes in, I know the Academy's got it wrong This film is not charming, funny or entertaining. It's loud, chaotic and irritating. A burned out Asian woman named Evelyn, running a laundromat, is on the brink of divorce from her (child?) husband. They take a trip to the IRS office to meet their auditor. She then is pulled into an alternate universe where her husband is somewhat improved but still has a pink piggy on his fanny pack. Weird. He tells Evelyn the multiverse needs her help.
There's some quick expository dialogue about the Alphaverse, "verse jumping" and the big baddy Jobu who wants to destroy everything. Then the characters jump from one universe to another to acquire special skills and fight off Jobu. At one point Evelyn jumps to a universe where she was a martial artist so she can fight Deirdre the auditor off.
Then more exposition where we learn about the young pupil Jobu who's mind was fractured and is a veritable verago who's looking for Evelyn. Then Jobu Tupaki shows up. The Great Evil. Oh my. We get her truth theory (from a bagel) that nothing matters. Several immature scenes ensue. One where Deirdre and her have hot dogs for fingers. One where Evelyn wipes her father's snot into his mouth. Seriously?
All the actors are good but it's the story that fails. We get a montage of quick screen hits of Evelyn in a multitude of different roles. When Deirdre shows up with cops to the laundromat, Evelyn drops into a rock in the desert on a planet with no human life. The rock beside her is her daughter Joy. We eventually learn Jobu just wants someone to share her unique space with. A place with only fractured memories. She needs Evelyn so she doesn't have to end herself alone in the bagel.
In another set of existential sequences, Evelyn fights a bunch of weirdos and resolves some of her inner conflicts. She exorcises Jobu out of her daughter, deals with Joy's teen angst, and ends her odyssey, returning to her original life, having learned a new appreciation for her kind husband and doing laundry and taxes.
It was an exercise in patience sitting through it. Despite the stellar acting cast, it was not my cup of tea.