You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

source: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

First, let me say that this movie left me with a look of both confusion and a shrug. I found myself totally disengaged by all the mess that ensued. I won't do a synopsis because there are plenty available already. I will jump right to my "bone to pick." Six excellent actors of extremely high quality and what does Allen do with them? Nothing. Hopkins, of whom I am a big fan, despite his very questionable project choices over the past few years. I was pretty excited to see him do something worthwhile since he made "slipstream" & the "human stain." Very disappointed in how he was used. Very bit part. Gemma Jones was absolutely wonderful, but again, poorly used. Watts and Brolin were about as interesting on screen as watching paint peel. That is nothing new - if you have been privy to any other Hollywood abortions they have starred in. I suppose they were there to add to the visuals. But really a 2'4 nicely polished up with a funny voice could have been a better stand in for Watts or Brolin. The rest of the performances were well done if a bit cardboard. The plot was a total mess. I am a firm believer in coalescence in film. If the threads of the individual stories don't meet for a climax or meaningful conclusion the filmmaker has failed in my estimation. That isn't to say this technique cannot be done well. It is simply very difficult to get right. Allen has done it in the past, "Hannah and her Sisters" being a good example of the muliverse that works right. Its hard to tell here if its a screenplay problem, directing, or shitty editing. It could be all of the above as far as we know. This was certainly not one of his best films. It would have been better if he cut out some of the junk in the forest and simply focused on a few of the trees.

Well first let me say this movie is not about a person like Antonio Banderas being a tall dark stranger as He is only 5'8, but this is more of a dark comedy(hence the name)but not a good one. I like dark comedy's but this lacks what most of them have for me. If you are looking for a real good dark comedy look elsewhere. This is not even a good movie on any level, no real start or ending just a bland film. Woody Allen tries to help this with some twist but not much really in the way of some of the great writers have done. If you are really bored maybe see it,if not then it's a waste of life. Most of the actor's do a fine job but still seem to miss the mark on more than one occasion. Out of all the dark comedy's I've seen, this one does not compare.

This film is about a family of mother, father, daughter and son-in-law, who go through various stages in their lives, creating an ocean of emotions that they have to deal with. "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" tells the superficially wonderful life of an old man, who feels his life slipping away as he grows old. He leaves his wife, causing her to become neurotic, depending on a clairvoyant to sooth her nerves. Their daughter is trapped in an unhappy marriage, while her husband is dying to prove himself that he is still worthy of something. Given such well developed and convincing backgrounds, "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" can only be a great film on character analysis. There is not a moment of boredom, all the characters are attractive and engaging in their own way. In true Woody Allen style, the characters are quirky, yet interesting and adorable. The characters are not as paranoid as in previous films, which is a departure from his usual style. It is still a great effort, and I enjoyed watching it a lot.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010) was written and directed by Woody Allen. Even if you didn't know that, you could guess it pretty quickly. In Woody Allen country, nobody stays in a love relationship if someone better comes along. Alfie Shebritch (Anthony Hopkins) is an older man married to Helena (Gemma Jones). He decides to have a (somewhat late) midlife crisis, finds a bimbo, and leaves his wife. Meanwhile, their daughter, Sally Channing (Naomi Watts) is leaving her husband Roy (Josh Brolin) because she has fallen in love with Greg (Antonio Banderas). Meanwhile, Roy . . . Allen has the clout to surround himself with these fine actors, and his movies--including this one--demonstrate his complete command of the medium. The problem is that he's writing and directing the same romantic comedy over and over. I saw the movie on DVD and it worked well on the small screen. I think it's worth seeing if you're in the mood for fine actors in a lightweight comedy. If you're in the mood for more than this, find another film.

Woody Allen starts and ends his movie by quoting Macbeth's monologue in Shakespeare's play, in which he sees life as "…This tale/Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury/Signifying nothing." This movie seems to be saying that with all the setbacks this idiot mercilessly visits on men and women alike, the only way to cope with the unfolding of his tale is by going charmingly bonkers. The prime example for this is the character of Helena (Gemma Jones in great form), the hard-drinking suicide-manqué, who, under the guidance of a charlatan seer, comes to terms with it all by believing she had had earlier lives in French settings. She succeeds in happily connecting with one of the ugliest and most meshuge men to be found anywhere on the British Isles these days. Everybody else in this movie, has a goal that is frustrated by reality, and the sparks of conflict all this generates ignite the plot. Particularly, Helena's unhappily married daughter Sally (Naomi Watts), like Flaubert's Emma Bovary before her (and there can be no doubt that Woody Allen deliberately plays on this precedent), goes to a performance of "Lucia di Lammermoor" with Greg, a man who wants to start having an affair with her (Antonio Banderas, better directed, and better made up than in any movie since he left his native Spain). Though strongly attracted to Greg, Sally does not yield to temptation, only to later deeply regret her post-operatic resistance, and head into a messy divorce and a major reversal in her career. No earlier lives for this modern woman! Amusingly, the scene in which Sally does not respond to Greg's advances takes place in a fancy Audi on a London street, while the corresponding scene in which Madame Bovary does accept Léon Dupuis' advances takes place during a most famous ride in a horse-drawn carriage along the streets of Rouen. Like in all Allen movies, there is a character clearly designed to be played by the director himself. For reasons hard to understand, Woody Allen has not cast himself in this movie but has opted for Anthony Hopkins to play the part of Alfie, I guess Michael Caine was not available. There is one scene in particular in which this extremely fine British actor executes a series of gestures which are clearly the same Woody Allen would execute at this point. This is funny indeed, but I would have preferred to see Allen himself at this point. The movie sparkles with Allen's marvelous wit, and one can safely ignore all the nonsense about this movie The New York Times has seen fit to print. To my mind, "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" is vintage Allen.

The movie's theme seems to be, as one character states, a bunch of stuff happens but in the end it has no meaning. In the old days, Woody Allen could have made this into a hilarious dark comedy. But now he just makes a movie in which a bunch of stuff happens and, ultimately, it has no meaning. I can't recall any of the characters seeming likable or interesting, but at least a couple of them seemed intended to seem so. He does still have his devoted followers who seem to like anything he does. But the boring characters (some from TV sitcoms) and same music played over and over just made me wish the film would end. I didn't laugh once, and as I left the theater I didn't ponder anything other than why I'd paid money to see this movie. It did have some potential, but in the end there was nothing.

I don't know who Woody Allen is making movies for anymore. Maybe someone who's never seen a Woody Allen movie before would enjoy this film. Everyone else will instantly recognize the same tired themes that he's explored ad nauseum, not to mention the numerous plot points that rip off his own movies. There's a lot going on in "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger," none of it interesting. It exists in a strange limbo: the characters and their problems aren't compelling enough to make for engaging drama, but nothing about the film is funny either. Only one plot point, that involving a struggling writer who passes off another writer's novel as his own and then finds out that not only is the other writer not dead (as he thought) but is likely to emerge from his coma, has dramatic possibilities. Allen could have done something dark and rich with that storyline, along the lines of "Crimes and Misdemeanors" or "Match Point," or he could have gone the screwball comedy route. He doesn't do either. It's not really worth mentioning the cast, since they're all wasted, but it includes Naomi Watts, Anthony Hopkins, Gemma Jones, Josh Brolin and Antonio Banderas. The only memorable performance comes from Lucy Punch as a low-class hooker/wanna be movie star, and though the plot she's part of is just an unfunny rehash of "Mighty Aphrodite," a fresh breeze wafted across the screen whenever she made an appearance. Grade: C

Excellent, charming movie that tracks the ups and downs of middle aged and older couples. It is not going for huge explosions or plot twists, so if that is what you like, this isn't for you. But i found it resonated emotionally and is also quite funny. a recurring theme is the stories we tell ourselves (and others) to let us go forward, through several examples. all in all: i say, ignore the jaded critics and go see it. highly recommended. Also - in my opinion - requiring ten (10) lines of text to rate a movie is crazy. i won't rate anymore, but felt strongly enough about this one that i wanted to add a dissenting voice and a dissenting vote. this addendum gets me to the required 10 lines.

In London, Helena Shebritch (Gemma Jones) has a broken heart since her husband Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) had had a third age crisis and left her seeking his lost youth. She meets the charlatan fortune teller Cristal Delgiorno (Pauline Collins) and follows her esoteric advices believing in the power of prophecy. Alfie meets the younger call girl Charmaine Foxx (Lucy Punch) and proposes her. Meanwhile, their daughter Sally Channing (Naomi Watts) has financial difficulties with her husband and aspirant writer Roy Channing (Josh Brolin). Roy is graduated in medical school but has never worked as a doctor since he had written a successful first novel and decided to follow the career of writer but he never succeeds in writing a good second novel. Sally starts working in the Geller Gallery and has a crush on her handsome boss Greg (Antonio Banderas), while Roy peeps and flirts through the window with his neighbor Dia (Freida Pinto) that is always dressed in red. When Roy's poker friend Henry Strangler, who had written a magnificent novel and showed only to Roy, has a fatal car accident with their other poker friend Mike, Roy misunderstands that Strangler died and he steals his manuscript that is successfully accepted by the editor to be published. Their lives change when Helena meets a widower that is her twin soul and Alfie finds that he is a cuckold and Charmaine is pregnant. Roy and Sally split, and Sally, who had fantasized an affair with her boss, finds that Greg sees her as a co-worker and friend only. Further, her mother will no longer lend a large amount to her to open her own gallery following Cristal's advice. And Roy, who moved to Dia's apartment, finds that Strangler has not died but is in coma instead. "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" is a witty and ironic tale of fantasies and the power of prophecy by Woody Allen. The black humor governs the situations that each character has to face and the price they have to pay with their fantasies and attitudes. Alfie has to support a * as the price for his belief that he could be younger again and have a son. Sally is unmarried and unemployed for believing that her boss desires her and her mother will help her to open her own gallery. Roy is in trouble since he has built his new life based on the novel of his friend that seems to be recovering. Only the naive and irrational Helena is happy in her lunatic world and reality. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): "Você Vai Conhecer o Homem dos Seus Sonhos" ("You Will Meet the Man of Your Dreams")