Customer Reviews

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is like a Zen version of an Eric Rohmer film. After seeing YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER, it's obvious why Woody Allen is much more highly regarded--and respected-in France than the U.S. The French appreciate films about relationships--especially Rohmer's films about relationships, such as MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S, CLAIRE'S KNEE, SUMMER, PAULINE AT THE BEACH, BOYFRIENDS AND GIRLFRIENDS, AN AUTUMN TALE, etc. Like Woody's recent films--especially MATCH POINT and VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA--YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER follows in the same footsteps. The common denominator amongst those films is FATE or PREDESTINATION. Woody seems to be saying that no matter what we do, things will work out in their own way. He is getting much more Zen-like in his golden years. Although YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER wasn't as funny like MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY, ANNIE HALL or PLAY IT AGAIN SAM nor was it as deep like CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, HANNAH AND HER SISTERS, or MANHATTAN--it is still a worthwhile film to see. Especially for Woody Allen fans. And the French.

An odd film for Allen, neither an overt comedy or one of his dark serious films (e.g. `Crimes and Misdemeanors'). This is a `light' drama, something he hasn't done much. While not Allen's best work, I felt far more warmly towards it than most of the press, especially on 2nd viewing. Some of the criticisms are valid; the voice over narration is out of tone with the piece and at times tells us too literally what we already know. Yet, in the current American cinema, how many film-makers are getting to even and try and address the complex subtle questions of grown-up relationships, aging and the fear of death, and the lies we tell ourselves to get through it all? Or deal with the paradox that humans seem to need something to believe in, and yet that same belief can also lead us astray? Or give great older actors like Anthony Hopkins and Gemma Jones really meaty roles? As long as Allen keeps asking questions, he'll remain a voice worth listening to.

The new comedy from Woody Allen. Story about a family who is falling apart...Husband (Hopkins) leaves his wife of 40 years...and that's just the beginning. The subject matter doesn't seem funny, but it works as a comedy, Woody Allen has a way of doing that. Husband leaves his wife, who is seeing a psychic, for a woman half his age, daughter has crush on her boss, her husband has crush on the neighbor. I've never been a Woody Allen fan, I have only really liked a few of his movies. This one was not that bad. It was very entertaining and enjoyable, but not one of my favorites. If you like Woody Allen I'm sure you will really enjoy this. If you are like me and are not a huge fan, this is still very watchable and a pretty good time. The cast is excellent and it's worth watching for that. I give it a B.

Would I watch again? - Most likely not.

YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER is Woody Allen light.

I know it's supposed to be a comedy. At least, the tone of the film starts out in that direction, but aside from a few mild chuckles along the way, the movie isn't really very funny.

The actors are all excellent. Allen's direction is fine and several of the multiple character story lines certainly have laugh-out-loud potential. But, sadly, the guffaws never come.

As is often the case in Woody's movies, the characters in this picture are seeking happiness on the other side of the fence, but when they get there, they find that the grass is not as green as they thought.

Filmed in London, the movie features Anthony Hopkins as a successful businessman who leaves his wife (Gemma Jones) of forty years and, eventually, winds up marrying a hooker (Lucy Punch). Jones, in the meantime, falls under the influence of a phony fortune-teller (Pauline Collins), who convinces her that she has lived before, probably in Elizabethan times.

Both of these situations contain tremendous comic possibilities, yet for some reason, Woody didn't pursue them, or if he did, the humor doesn't come off.

Hopkins and Jones have a daughter (Naomi Watts), married to struggling writer Josh Brolin. Their relationship is also in trouble, with Brolin fawning over the beautiful woman (Freida Pinto) in the apartment across the way and Naomi falling in love with her married, philandering boss (Antonio Banderas).

Not wanting to be a Spoiler, I won't be specific, but I wonder if this film might have worked better if some of the more interesting events that occur in the "third act" had taken place earlier in the movie. That would have definitely raised "the stakes," and allowed us (i.e. the audience) to become more involved with the characters.

Despite these flaws, I remain a Woody Allen fan and look forward to seeing his next film.

© Michel B. Druxman

It's somehow strangely hypnotic, maybe it's the combination of great, intense actors--Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins...and the supporting cast. Or maybe its the mix of dark hopelessness and jokes about the same subject matter.

Other people are saying it's like a lot of his others, but to me this one is different. In other movies--like Crimes and Misdemeanors, the comedy was relief from the intensity...but in this movie, the humor comes from the darkness of it.

I loved it, even though Woody pisses me off with his judgementalism of anything beyond scientific understanding.

And the movie just suddenly ends...out of nowhere, and I really wanted some more. But Woody does it his way, and I'm ultimately glad he does.

Short Attention Span Summary:

1. There are several characters that intersect in various ways and make choices. Some good, some bad.

2. One character is an older man who divorces his wife (of many years) and takes up with a tart (who later gets pregnant with someone else's child-- after taking this old fool's money).

3. Another character is a struggling writer whose work is rejected. He steals the manuscript of a friend that he thought was dead, only to find out that the friend wasn't really dead.

4. Still another character becomes beholden to a psychic for advice on every single one of life's moves.

5. One character wants to open up a business (but can't succeed) and wants to lean on her mother for financing.

A lot of people missed the point of this movie, and it is this (and as much is said in the film): Not all decisions in life will go for the best. And in that way, this is not like typical movies. But it is very much like real life. There's not a lot of profanity/ copulation, but there is a humorously-made point.

This movie is worth an evening ticket price.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, the latest Woody Allen's film is light, airy, lacy, elegant, sad, bittersweet and tender, just like a Boccherini musical piece for guitar that a beautiful young woman was playing sitting next to the window in a London apartment/flat. It is also funny, sharp, mocks the absurdity of existence, and manages to highlight the insignificance and callousness of the characters yet not to judge them while letting them search for "bell' alma inamorata", and are not we all searching? Allen is still the master of his craft, the creator of charming dra-medies. His favorite and constant themes of lives and deaths of the relationships, of growing older and refusing to accept it, of trying to postpone the inevitable meeting with a "tall dark stranger", of struggle to find the reason in a tale, "full of sound and fury", are all here. But he knows how to look at the familiar material from the unusual angle by mixing masterfully humor and seriousness, light touch and insight in the right proportions to explore the desires, longings, and motivations of the characters. One of the themes Allen was interested while working on the Tall Dark Stranger was faith in something because it is for humans to prefer the power of self-delusions over the darkness of bitter truths. He said: "This sounds so bleak when I say it, but we need some delusions to keep us going. And the people who successfully delude themselves seem happier than the people who can't." Sounds too serious but it is Allen's film, and is ironic, witty, and light. I ask myself why I love Allen's films so much and always wait for them impatiently. One of the reasons, he makes them for adults and about adults. His target audiences want to see a clever intelligent film without being manipulated or spoon fed. I admire Allen for respecting his viewers: "I never write down to them. I always assume that they're all as smart as I am . . . if not smarter". Or, more likely, I love his films because the beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, and my eyes are always open to the beauty of his films. They are so perfectly constructed and framed. They look and sound terrific. While watching them, I don't understand how can they not be liked and admired by everyone? His short films are not small to me. I need them and I always will.

I watched this movie first on a DVD from Netflix. I love this movie and bought this DVD from Amazon.

I'd say this is between a 3.5 and 4 star movie. Amazon does not give us the ability to use half stars though so I had to pick a whole star.

The old adage is to write what you know. Woody Allen is now an old man. Thus, when he writes about old characters for this film, it really works. Anthony Hopkins is perfect as the long married husband who throws everything away in order to recover his youth. He doesn't stand a chance, of course. His ex prostitute young wife is great as she takes him for everything she can. His ex-wife, played by Gemma Jones, is initially the upset one but she goes on to a much better life albeit with the spiritualists in present day London society. They are kind of a bizarre group but she fits in and finds a life for herself there (so it could be underwater basketweaving instead and it would still work).

Their child, played by Naomi Watts, is yet another of Allen's heroines from his earlier career. She is whiny, demanding, shrill and is Allen's usual shiksa character (yawn). This is the woman he has memorialized in film since the mid 1970s and I would like to see him jettison her as a character. Naomi Watts does a decent enough job at playing her (as did Mia Farrow and Diane Keaton) but I am sick of this Allen character. Not so, however, her husband, a real rat, played by the oh so talented Josh Brolin. He can just about pull any movie together with his villainous roles. He is assembling a real rogues' gallery of them, all of them wonderful. This time he gives up being a doctor to be a writer, only in the end to encounter a medical twist of fate which is the funniest part of the movie. I found Brolin to be the most comic part of the movie.

I really think this could have been a much better, funnier movie if the Naomi Watts character had been removed. I don't think Allen realizes how common mixed marriages have become and that the woman of 2011 who is or is not Jewish (or more likely of mixed parentage) is very different from the women whom he was pursuing in his hey day. He's a lot more on beam when writing about the old woman and the prostitute her ex takes up with his doomed desire to reverse the clock.

Woody Allen's personal life turned off many people, BUT that should not take away from his talent. He is still brilliant at capturing "a slice of life" and making it entertaining. It's fine to judge movies, but let's stop judging people.