Review: YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER

Say what you want about his more recent fare, but it’s undeniable that Woody Allen is still one of our greatest working filmmakers. After a side trip to Spain for VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA, then back to New York for WHATEVER WORKS, Woody Allen returns to London for YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER and proves he has never lost his way. His newest is an articulate, literate film, full of humanity and perception about its sometimes less-than-loveable characters, but it also returns to much of the humor from his ‘early, funny’ films and is a well-observed drama about romantic entanglements, psychics, and living with bad decisions. By refusing to make commercially viable pictures, and sticking to his creative guns, Allen’s audience has gotten smaller, but his devotees will pleased to know he’s at the top of his form here and that YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER is vintage Woody.

The interrelated tale of two couples, YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER tells of people who rely upon cheating, lying or fraud to get achieve what they desire. Alfie, a wealthy older man, ( Anthony Hopkins), refuses to age gracefully, so leaves his wife Helena (Gemma Jones ) to marry a twenty-ish golddigging hooker (Lucy Punch) in a vain attempt to win back his lost youth. Helena deals with her divorce by relying on a charlatan seer, and comes to terms with it all by believing she had had earlier lives in France. Their daughter Sally (Naomi Watts), who’s unhappy in her marriage to her sleazy writers-blocked Roy (Josh Brolin), develops a crush on her handsome art gallery owner boss (Antonio Banderas), while Roy, a novelist anxiously awaiting the response to his latest manuscript, becomes moonstruck over Dia (Pinto), a mystery woman who catches his eye through a nearby window. They’re not the most likeable group of people and Allen could treat these people with disdain, with their rationalizations and their self-absorption, but instead he sees them for what they are: fairly average people struggling to make some sort of accommodation with life, to make some sense of their emotions and bad decisions. Like the best of Woody, YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER is very funny but often painful and uncomfortable. Allen moves this unhappy group through the various disappointments and complications they create by following their dreams. Many of the themes are ones he’s visited before and the lesson is here is to be careful what you wish for, sort of the inverse of his similar HUSBANDS AND WIVES, which was more about couples agreeing to settle for less than they want. The complicated connections between this ensemble are deftly handled and it’s a testament to Allen’s writing and the performances that we don’t need a scorecard to keep the relationships straight. Allen lets his eager cast fly. Hopkins, that most forceful of actors, plays scenes with Lucy Punch that rival any film this year for sheer agonizing embarrassment (and she matches him step by venomous step). He’s the stand-out (his is the character clearly designed to be played, like one in all Allen movies, by the director himself), but the others, particularly Brolin (showing great versatility), are excellent. My only complaint is the narration. The writing is such Allen’s voice that I wish he would have narrated it himself. If you think the chance of Woody Allen ever matching his best work (ANNIE HALL, MANHATTAN, CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS) is remote, think again (though many may disagree that it reaches the brilliance of those).  By turns witty, surprising, and heartbreaking, YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER is Woody Allen at the top of his form and easily one of the best films of the year

5 of 5 Stars