# All of Me (1984 film)
**All of Me** is a 1984 American fantasy comedy directed by [Carl Reiner](https://www.edgepedia.org/carl-reiner), in which the soul of a dying millionaire, Edwina Cutwater ([Lily Tomlin](https://www.edgepedia.org/lily-tomlin)), is meant to be transferred into the young Terry Hoskins ([Victoria Tennant](https://www.edgepedia.org/victoria-tennant)) but instead enters the body of her lawyer Roger Cobb (Steve Martin), where she controls his right side while he keeps the left[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56992) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000640-all_of_me). The film opened on 21 September 1984, runs 93 minutes, and is rated PG[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56992).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / producer | Carl Reiner; produced by Stephen Friedman for Kings Road Productions[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56992) |
| Writers | Phil Alden Robinson, Henry Olek, and Edwin Davis (story based on Davis's unpublished novel *Me Two*)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56992) |
| Cast | Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin, Victoria Tennant, Madolyn Smith, Richard Libertini[3](https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/67076) |
| Release | 21 September 1984; 93 minutes; PG; distributed by Universal Pictures[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56992) • [4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0086873/) |
| Box office | $5,803,848 opening weekend; $36,403,064 domestic total[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0086873/) |
| Critical reception | 85% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (41 reviews); Metascore 68[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000640-all_of_me) • [5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/all-of-me/critic-reviews/) |
| Awards | Steve Martin won Best Actor from the New York Film Critics Circle (1984) and the National Society of Film Critics (1985); both leads received Golden Globe nominations[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086873/awards/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Roger Cobb is a 38-year-old Los Angeles attorney at the firm of Burton Schuyler who would rather play guitar with a jazz band, and who hopes to make partner, partly through his relationship with Schuyler's daughter Peggy ([Madolyn Smith](https://www.edgepedia.org/madolyn-smith))[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086873/plotsummary/) • [8](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56992-ALL-OF-ME?cxt=filmography). On the morning of his thirty-eighth birthday he suggests to Peggy that they marry[8](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56992-ALL-OF-ME?cxt=filmography).
The dying millionaire Edwina Cutwater, a client of the firm, has arranged with the mystic Prahka Lasa ([Richard Libertini](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-libertini)) to have her soul transferred at the moment of her death into a brass vessel and then into the body of the willing Terry Hoskins[9](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/all-of-me-1984). The ceremony goes wrong: the vessel falls from a window ledge and strikes Roger on the head just after Edwina dies, and her soul takes up residence in his body, controlling the right side while he retains the left[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/09/21/double-the-fun/833bb053-43b8-4962-88c8-c493ebc3a17a/). When Roger looks in a mirror he sees Lily Tomlin's Edwina rather than his own reflection[11](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1983/11/24/the-big-transplant/afed1a42-3011-4627-8605-8e59ccec2e2e/). The two spend the rest of the film as a bickering pair sharing one body, seeking the swami and the vessel to undo the transfer, while Roger's engagement to Peggy collapses[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/09/21/double-the-fun/833bb053-43b8-4962-88c8-c493ebc3a17a/) • [3](https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/67076). Eventually Roger falls in love with Terry, the woman Edwina had meant to inhabit[12](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/all-of-me/).
## Production
[Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) began on 22 August 1983 in Los Angeles, with locations including 650 S. Spring Street, used as the exterior of the Schuyler & Mifflin Law Offices, and the downtown Music Center[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56992). The film was shot in color with [Panavision](https://www.edgepedia.org/panavision) lenses and cameras[8](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56992-ALL-OF-ME?cxt=filmography).
**Literary source.** A 12 October 1984 New York Times article reported that the film was based on Ed Davis's unpublished novel *Me Two*, in which a 99-year-old dowager named Cynthia Cutwater passes into the body of an aging derelict after her death. Davis's agent had imagined [Katharine Hepburn](https://www.edgepedia.org/katharine-hepburn) and [Lee Marvin](https://www.edgepedia.org/lee-marvin) in the roles, but beyond the premise the screenplay bears little resemblance to the novel; Davis used the pseudonym Edwina Davis for the manuscript, and the character became Edwina Cutwater in the film[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56992). Trade press in September 1983 referred to the project by the working titles *Me, Two* and *Me, Too* before it settled on *All of Me*[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56992).
**Reiner and Martin.** The film was the fourth collaboration between director Carl Reiner and [Steve Martin](https://www.edgepedia.org/steve-martin), following *The Jerk*, *Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid*, and *The Man with Two Brains*[11](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1983/11/24/the-big-transplant/afed1a42-3011-4627-8605-8e59ccec2e2e/). The title song, "All of Me," written by Seymour Simons and Gerald Marks, is performed in the film by Joe Williams with an arrangement by Billy May[8](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56992-ALL-OF-ME?cxt=filmography).
## Reception
The film received a mainly positive critical response[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56992). Roger Ebert, the longtime [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times) critic and 1975 [Pulitzer Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/pulitzer-prize) winner for criticism, praised its screwball method of applying absolute logic to an absurd premise and placed it "in a class with *Ghostbusters*"[9](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/all-of-me-1984). Janet Maslin of The New York Times called it the best American comedy since *Tootsie*[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/all-of-me/critic-reviews/). On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 85% Tomatometer from 41 reviews, with a critics consensus crediting Reiner's direction and the timing of its leads; its Metacritic score is 68[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000640-all_of_me) • [5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/all-of-me/critic-reviews/).
Reviewers noted a structural peculiarity of the premise: Tomlin's character dies early and returns mostly in voiceover or as mirror reflections, so the two stars are rarely in the same frame, leaving Martin to carry extended physical comedy alone[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/09/21/double-the-fun/833bb053-43b8-4962-88c8-c493ebc3a17a/). The Washington Post's Tom Shales still called the result "a mighty good time," and [Pauline Kael](https://www.edgepedia.org/pauline-kael) wrote in [The New Yorker](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-new-yorker) that Martin and Tomlin "tune in to each other's timing the way lovers do in life, only more so"[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/09/21/double-the-fun/833bb053-43b8-4962-88c8-c493ebc3a17a/) • [5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/all-of-me/critic-reviews/).
## Awards and box office
Steve Martin won Best Actor awards from both the New York Film Critics Circle in 1984 and the National Society of Film Critics in 1985[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56992) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086873/awards/). At the 1985 Golden Globes, Martin was nominated for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical, and Tomlin for Best Actress in the same category[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086873/awards/).
Distributed domestically by [Universal Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/universal-pictures), the film opened on 21 September 1984 with $5,803,848 and earned $36,403,064 in the United States[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0086873/).
## Legacy
In a piece published on 6 May 2005, Daily Variety reported that a remake was in development at New Line Cinema, with a script by Brent Goldberg and David Wagner and Wanda Sykes set to star[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56992). The film has since been grouped with the body-swap comedies it helped define; Rotten Tomatoes' retrospective ranking of 1984 films places it among the year's best, and its critics consensus calls it "a body-swap comedy worth holding onto"[13](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/best-1984-movies/) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000640-all_of_me).
## References
1. [All of Me (1984), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56992)
2. [All of Me, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000640-all_of_me)
3. [All of Me (1984), Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/67076)
4. [All of Me (1984), Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0086873/)
5. [All of Me critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/all-of-me/critic-reviews/)
6. [All of Me (1984) Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086873/awards/)
7. [All of Me (1984) Plot, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086873/plotsummary/)
8. [All of Me, AFI Catalog (full record)](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56992-ALL-OF-ME?cxt=filmography)
9. [All of Me movie review, Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/all-of-me-1984)
10. [Double The Fun, The Washington Post, 21 September 1984](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/09/21/double-the-fun/833bb053-43b8-4962-88c8-c493ebc3a17a/)
11. [The Big Transplant, The Washington Post, 24 November 1983](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1983/11/24/the-big-transplant/afed1a42-3011-4627-8605-8e59ccec2e2e/)
12. [All of Me, Film Society of Lincoln Center](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/all-of-me/)
13. [The 100 Best Movies of 1984, Rotten Tomatoes](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/best-1984-movies/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1980s › Satirical, black, and parody comedies of the 1980s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license