You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger

Every time a Woody Allen film is released, I wait with baited breathe, praying that the genius of Annie Hall, Manhattan or the exquisite Crimes and Misdemeanours has returned his work to past glories, only to be time and again disappointed. A couple of years ago, Vicky Christina Barcelona gave hope of a comeback, but things soon went downhill again. So I wanted desperately to enjoy You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, hoping for a true return to form with that old Allen charm and wit that made his older work so intelligent, funny and deeply touching; all things this is not.

What makes my disenchantment worse though is that it is hard to blame anyone but Woody Allen himself. For a start, his screenplay, telling the stories of various members of a London family through various trials and tribulations, is not witty, original or particularly insightful about anything. The cast try their best but the script leaves little room to manoeuvre and none of the characters feel fully explored or are given enough depth to manage any significant emotional connection. This is particularly disappointing considering Allen’s cast is full of great talent including Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin and Anthony Hopkins, who try their best but in the end none of it rings true, which is something not helped by the fact that the characters’ stories are ones you cannot relate to. For example, Alfie Shepridge (Hopkins) leaves his wife of forty years, before falling in love and marrying a thirty year old prostitute (Lucy Punch), who never for one second comes across as anything other than a thoroughly unpleasant cliché, alienating the audience rather than forming that deep meaningful connection that made his past films so touching and personal.

The problems do not stop there: the film’s London setting is quite bizarre, a tourist’s view of the city that certainly does not resemble the city I know, appearing like some fantasy version in which everything is clean, shiny and very civilised. Furthermore, once this fantasy has been created it is not used, with the fact that it is set in London having no relevance to the film at all. In the same way, it lacks a central theme or connecting thread meaning that it essentially seems to be about nothing. Helena (Gemma Jones) visits a fortune-teller to ease her worries, Josh Brolin and Naomi Watts bicker and argue as their marriage falls apart, whilst Anthony Hopkins’ character makes an idiot of himself, all of which means nothing.

The film, though, is not terrible; its cast are likeable enough and there is still a little of that Woody Allen in the film’s construction. But as someone who adores his earlier work, I am sick and tired of these sub-standard films he now produces year after year. In the end, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger proves to be nothing other than a particularly forgettable addition to the list of disappointments.

See You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger at City Screen, York. Check out the cinema's website for times and further details.

Add Comment

You must log in to submit a comment.