Now I’m not usually one for sports metaphors, but let me give this a try. Sometimes there is a team that is so stacked, their roster filled with the best players the sport has to offer, and they still lose the game. You are disappointed because you were expecting to cheer your favorite players on the victory, but instead, you wallow in defeat.

That is a pretty concise way to put The Laundromat. 

The newly released Netflix film centers on a widowed woman, Ellen Martin (Meryl Streep), dealing with the wake of the untimely death of her husband. On top of the loss of a loved one, Ellen also has to deal with the fact that she is left without a settlement. This sends her on a quest to uncover the roots of a fake insurance policy, bringing her to many different places where she meets many different people.

Not only does the film star the arguable queen of cinema, but many other familiar faces are also peppered throughout the film. Decorated veterans like Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, James Cromwell, David Schwimmer, and Jeffrey Wright, just to name a few, make their appearances. 

The actors and actress featured in the movie have all been their fair share of excellent films before, but the director was no newbie either. The movie was directed by Steven Soderbergh, the three-time academy award nominee, and one-time winner Steven Soderbergh. 

So I would like to think that it goes without saying that my expectations, while not sky high, were at least preparing me to watch a film that I could appreciate and want to watch again.

Spoiler alert: it was not a film I appreciated, nor a film I wanted to watch again.

It was just so meaningless.

The plot required me to think deeper, something that I would have been willing to do if I felt there would be a payoff. I just did not feel a real tug to the character or something that kept me watching, other than finishing the movie so I could review it.

I understand that I have to be mindful when critiquing acting gods and goddesses, and truly it is not the actor’s portrayal I have a problem with. It was the writing. That, along with editing, are two aspects of a movie that should only be noticeable if they are fantastic or if they are terrible. If a movie’s writing and editing are just mediocre, they should blend into the fabric of the movie seamlessly. But if the writing is bad it sticks out like a stain on that movie’s fabric.

While there were no glaring mistakes made by the movie, there just seemed to be nothing done exceptionally well. The thought of how much potential the cast held was the cruelest aspect of watching the film. It was the tangible notion of what the movie could be that soured my opinion.

The Laundromat was nothing exciting, nothing revolutionary, and really nothing special.

What it was were a couple of hours that I will never get back.