You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

Good movie but grossly overrated

best movie i've ever seen.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Yes, that's it. Is it Allen? Put your hands on it!! I'm not saying I love all his films - and I have seen more than twenty - but I prefer to try, and I hardly ever feel down, when I learn the film I'm about to see is directed by this, that is of of the best moviemakers of all times. "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" is a sweet piece of art for, as I see it, tells a nice story in a simple - yet beautiful - way. A typical Allen thing.And the cast? Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Gemma Jones, Antônio Banderas, Josh Brolin .... Don't miss it!

Various romances working their way through the proverbial peaks and valleys of love because, as narrator Zak Orth so pithily points out for us, "sometimes the illusions work better than the medicine." Woody Allen drama-lite shot in and around London concerns a young married couple (Josh Brolin and Naomi Watts) finding their bickering-from-room-to-room union on the brink of collapse after her parents announce their split; Brolin, a struggling writer, becomes smitten with the attractive woman in the apartment across the way, while gallery worker Watts flirts with her boss. Watts' father (Anthony Hopkins) takes up with a much younger woman (a former prostitute who may not have changed her ways) while her mother (Gemma Jones) becomes attracted to a book-seller still in love with his deceased wife. This is one of Allen's least-compelling group of characters. It isn't enough that Hopkins is humiliated by having to gulp Viagra and shell out all his money to keep his prostie-wife happy, he's further humiliated by the prospect of raising a child that isn't his (the pair are also misfits in each other's lifestyle, which is straight out of the older man/younger woman manual). Meanwhile, Brolin (looking like Kris Kristofferson in his youth) lurches through his scenes without expression, and seems incapable of reading a book much less writing one. It's a curiously indifferent enterprise, as if Allen's heart wasn't in it and his unamused cast just wanted to get through it. *1/2 from ****

Many Fans of the Prolific and Brilliant Writer/Director may use that Line ('You have sipped us dry.") from His late Movie to poke Him in the eye for being redundant or in danger of losing His Flare and Energy with the onset of Old Age.There could be some Truth to that as witnessed by this Film, but also could be a knee-jerk reaction of disappointment because He so often attains Greatness. This one is droll and the Humor is sardonic and His Sharp Insights takes a backseat to Irony and Soap Opera conventions.It does have a Vision from an aging Artist that is reflecting on the New Millennium and His place at the table of Social Criticism and Philosophical musings. After all, here we have a Fortune Teller replacing Psychiatry to find Meaning to all the Madness, Meditation vs Medication. Another central Character is a Degreed Medical Doctor who sees his Destiny as, of all things, a Writer of Novels. Again, Celebrity vs Healer. Welcome to the 2000's.This is somewhat intriguing and with such an accomplished Cast it is forever Watchable, but one keeps flashing Nostalgic about the Good Ol Days when Woody Allen's Curveball had its spin and He hadn't lost a step on His way to the Hoop.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)Simply put, not Woody Allen's best. But it has lots of the trademarks of Allen's films, especially from this late period, and sometimes this one seems about to shine, either in humor or in pathos.It's not quite a roaring comedy, nor a farce, nor a true straight drama. A number of major characters are in relationships that are falling apart or beginning again, often (of course) with infidelity. So Anthony Hopkins plays a wealthy old man who refuses to be old, so he begins working out, popping performance pills, and sleeping with a prostitute (though he apparently thinks she's just a nice actress). And so he leaves his wife. Then there's his wife and her need to start over. There's the prostitute who naturally isn't satisfied with sex with an elderly chap (everything is very British--it's set in London).And that's just one group. An important second group of characters include a couple of writers (their manuscripts become an important small subplot) and their loves. Including the scintillating young woman across the courtyard who practices cello in her window. You might think this is a parody of a dream (I laughed out loud when it first happened because I was sure he was making a joke), but it's taken seriously. In fact, the guy watching her (one of the writers) is a true jerk, and seems to succeed as a jerk. No joke there, either.Etc. It could easily have been a delicious interplay of contemporary characters facing romantic crossed-wires. But the timing is a hair off, the dialog sometimes obvious or sometimes too familiar (like we've seen it before not just in life, but in a Woody Allen movie). There are some touching scenes, and the best parts of the movie are probably the serious ones, but you can't extract those beautiful five minute segments from the more contrived and strained whole.A final clue to Allen's intentions comes from the bland (downright boring) voice-over at the start and end. It means to suggest a lighthearted look at these people (caught in the sound and the fury). And the music in the background shifts the mood in almost silly ways, announcing that the movie is almost an oversized trifle. Or truffle.Too bad. Allen is his brilliant best when he mixes up humor and tragedy, and he's great at both. I'm glad he tried. If you love Allen, you should see this and give it a chance. If you don't know his movies or know you don't like them, give some of the great ones another chance. The list is long.