FILM REVIEW: 'YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER'
Frieda Pinto Amongst Ensemble Cast in Woody Allen's Latest Feature Film
If the decidedly lukewarm Scoop and Cassandra’s Dream weren’t enough of a hint, Woody Allen’s new comedy du neurosis, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, reaffirms the fact that, to make good movies, perhaps he needs to return to his roots. Set once again in London, the dawdling characters (which includes Indian actress Freida Pinto) whose increasingly unfortunate lives are placed on the screen for the viewer to savor are amusing, but only to a point. Like a too-old cup of British tea, the film is tepid at best.
Once again musing over infidelity and anxiety, Allen focuses his gaze on two London couples. Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) and Helena (Gemma Jones) have recently divorced due to the former leaving the latter for a free-spirited girl (code: prostitute) named Charmaine. Helena then goes a bit bonkers, turning to a hokey psychic for advice to the frustration of everyone around her. Their daughter Sally (Naomi Watts) is in a similarly maudlin situation with her husband Roy (Josh Brolin), both of which lust after their own separate people — Sally her art gallery boss (Antonio Banderas), and Roy a 20-something (and engaged) woman across the way from their apartment.
As expected, darkly comical coincidences and wackiness ensues, albeit in sort of a half-baked manner. None of the film is particularly funny, and the characters and situations all come across as amalgamations of previous Allen folly to the point in which this reviewer was bored to tears throughout most of the movie. Perhaps the setting is to blame. The snobbery and idiotic nature of all these characters, their complaints, reasoning, and actions all seem very Manhattanite-esque, and it clashes with the London setting. Maybe if the film was set in New York I would have liked it more. Alas, it just feels wrong in its current state.
Casting is equally strange. Banderas seems very out of place in his role as a Spanish art gallery owner, yet he plays off Naomi Watts very nicely, allowing her missed-the-boat 30-something Sally to shine through. Hopkins and Jones steal the show, equally nailing a sense of elderly disillusionment on the head with delightful results. Jones is particularly grating but in the most appropriate way possible. I wanted to throttle her character for the most of the film — a sign of success on her part for sure. Too bad the solid performances aren’t enough to keep this one afloat, as You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger unfortunately sinks under the weight of its unoriginal plot and unfunny jokes.
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