Woody Allen, after a brief respite back to his “home” in New York City with his last film, “Whatever Works,” once again returns to a European setting for his latest dramedy set in London, entitled, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.”
The title alludes to the oft-clichéd prediction somebody might receive when visiting a psychic, palm reader or other kind of mystic seer. In this film, several characters and relationships are intertwined and each individual is seeking solace in someone or something other than what they currently have.
Gemma Jones (“Bridget Jones Diary,” “MI-5”) plays the film’s central character, Helena. Her husband Alfie (played by a very reserved Anthony Hopkins) wakes up one night in a panic and decides to change his entire life. He leaves Helena after forty years of marriage, goes on a health kick and gets engaged to a call girl (a pitch perfect performance by Lucy Punch).
Following an unsuccessful suicide attempt, Helena is encouraged by her daughter, Sally (Naomi Watts), to visit a fortune teller named Cristal (an over-the-top Pauline Collins). Cristal is most likely a complete charlatan. However, as Sally puts it, the ‘illusion’ helps her mother more than the medicine does. Helena becomes a changed woman and begins not only to believe in past-life recollections but also brings her troubled family and their issues to Cristal’s fortune-telling attention.
Meanwhile, Sally finds herself in a difficult, childless marriage with Roy (a disheveled Josh Brolin),a failed writer currently undergoing a four year battle with writer’s block whereby he cannot seem to finish the novel that will return him to best-sellerdom. As Sally is forced to work (as the assistant to an art gallery owner played by Antonio Banderas), Roy becomes intrigued by the new woman who has moved into the apartment directly across from his (played by “Slumdog Millionaire” star Freida Pinto). Roy’s obsession with her begins and he starts his pursuit of his so-called “muse in red.”
This one moves fast—it’s important to pay attention. Alfie is now married to call girl Charmaine, who just cannot seem to give up her prior profession. Sally has begun to fall for her boss (Banderas) but is rebuffed when she learns he is having an affair with an old school friend of hers --- a struggling artist that she introduced to him. Roy seeks to capitalize on the rotten luck of a poker buddy of his, Henry Strangler (Ewen Bremner), who is allegedly killed in an auto accident. Henry had taken a shot at writing a first novel and gave it to Roy for his opinion. With Henry out of the picture and Roy’s last attempt at a novel shot down --- he absconds with Henry’s brilliant book and claims it is his own work, while filing for divorce from his wife Sally and moving in with his muse (whose engagement to a Belgian businessman he has now destroyed).
What Allen has done is take a number of different conflicted relationships, any of which could have stood on their own as an interesting film, and mashed them together into this delightful whirlwind of a comedy/drama that will keep the audience guessing at every turn.
“You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” has already premiered at Cannes and the Toronto Film Festival and is sure to be talked about for multiple awards come Oscar/Golden Globe Season. Allen has always had a knack for bringing Oscar gold to his actresses (Penelope Cruz, Mira Sorvino, Diane Keaton and twice for Dianne Wiest) --- perhaps the same is in store for either Gemma Jones or Lucy Punch. His recurring theme of the older man with the younger woman (eerily close to his own personal life) was personified in “Mighty Aphrodite” and “Whatever Works” and he returns to that successful formula once again with the Hopkins/Punch relationship in this film.
Allen has received criticism for sticking too long with the same NYC-based tales of angst and ‘kvetching’ and also had some backlash against his totally non-Woody Allen-like thrillers (“Match Point” and “Cassandra’s Dream”). But he has also taken chances and has evolved as a filmmaker since his split from Mia Farrow, as the string of movies she starred in all started to blend together. “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” is a treat for the intelligent filmgoer who will relish in the opening and closing credits being sandwiched by Leon Redbone’s rendition of “When You Wish Upon a Star.” This movie is a very realistic take on relationships where everything is not necessarily neatly wrapped up in a little bow by the film’s end.
DIRECTOR: Woody Allen SCREENWRITER: Woody Allen PRODUCERS: Letty Aronson, Jack Rollins, Jaume Roures, Stephen Tenenbaum CAST: Gemma Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Pauline Collins, Josh Brolin MPAA RATING: R
