You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)
For our attention-challenged generation, Woody Allen’s film, You will meet a tall dark stranger (2010) should easily satisfy. The pace of the film between scenes is fast, but the pace within scenes is even faster. From nervous pacing to walking to jogging, the characters never stop moving and neither does the camera, creating a wonderful sense of chaos.
This movie tells the story of four disillusioned people (two couples), who are so unhappy with their lives that they begin a desperate search for fulfillment.
Antonio Banderas and Naomi Watts in "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger"
Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) is an elderly man who’s afraid of ageing and who’s still bitter about not having a son. So he embarks upon the typical mid-life crisis; he divorces his wife, buys a sports a car and marries a younger, more attractive woman. Alfie’s ex-wife, Helena (Gemma Jones), herself wrought with despair over the divorce, seeks happiness and fulfillment through spirituality, only to end up doling out lots of money to a phony psychic. Alfie and Helena’s daughter, Sally (Naomi Watts), is also struggling with several issues, most of which stem from her husband Roy (Josh Brolin), whose own frustration is punctuated by a string of literary failures following his much-acclaimed first novel.
Actress Gemma Jones (Left) plays Helena Shebritch character in "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger"
Only with Woody, right? The elderly Alfie falls in love with an unfaithful prostitute while Helena (who, with encouragement from her ‘psychic’, believes she has lived previous lives) becomes enamoured with a man who’s trying to contact his own dead wife. Daughter Sally flirts with the idea of pursuing her married boss who is already in an affair and Roy, meanwhile, falls madly in love with his muse who, fittingly, already has a fiancée.
Each thus abandons reason in the hope that their new “tall dark stranger” will bring happiness. It doesn’t for them, but rest assured that it does for the audience – the casting is great, and the characters work brilliantly together, with the four big actors naturally shining, but Gemma Jones really standing out. The crazier she gets, the funnier the movie becomes – especially in her interactions with Roy and Sally.
Like any good Allen film, the jokes are constructed around tension-filled moments – the kind that make viewers belly laugh, but itch with discomfort at the same time. These vignettes are soaked in drama and work so well because of the context – Allen does a great job, from a narrative perspective, of building momentum via each character’s failures. And thus, the snowball effect of madness and hilarity builds and builds into a well-crafted ending – this is one of his best for a while.
98 mins.
Matthew Schur
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Woody Allen's comedy is a frenetic, fun-filled journey, says Picturenose's Matthew Schur
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