User Reviews

Something is happening to Woody Allen ... or to me ... not clear exactly what, but I started to like more his latest films.

With this movie Allen is back in England, but there is very little Britishness in this movie excepting the setting and the opening quote of Shakespeare. To the same extent the story could have happened in Manhattan, or some other corner of Allenland. The quote that I mentioned is about the meaning of life, and it leaves nothing to fate or to higher goals in our lives, but rather a lot to chance and to trying to find a support that makes us overcome hurdles, any support, be it a dream, or a cheap superstition, or even a cheat. The Tall Dark Stranger in the title can be a handsome male the women in the movie dream about, or maybe the dark end that expects each of us at the finish line.

Each of the characters in the film finds his own cheat or lie or fraud to rely upon. Helena Shepridge (wonderful British actress Gemma Jones) is abandoned by her husband Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) and finds refuge and advice in a fake fortune-teller who tells her what she wants to hear. If her fortune-teller is a real person, the other characters can be said to have private virtual fortune-tellers of their own. Alfie marries a prostitute half his age in a vain attempt to win back his lost youth, just to find himself deceived as expected. Helena's daughter Sally (Naomi Watts) fantasizes about an affair with her rich boss gallery owner (Antonio Banderas). Her husband, Roy (Josh Brolin) unsuccessfully tries to sell his second novel, then fate and fraud combine to help him make an apparent jump ahead which allows him to dare cheat on his wife and date the neighbor in the near-by building which he observes in a Peeping Tom manner that allows Allen to quote Hitchcock. Each of the character has ups and downs, actually more downs then ups, but we are in Woody Allen movies, nobody is really hungry, suffering is existential, and despite all problems in life there is always money for good meals and whiskey.

The story can actually end at any point in time, ten minutes earlier or ten minutes later. Each of the characters goes through convulsions of fate, but the story and the film must end, as everything ends, but do not look for meanings about the ending, it just ends. The combination of skillful story telling and abrupt ending works well. As the end is not served on the tray it is the spectator who needs to fill it in with some meaning, if there is a meaning. Yet, the overall impression is of having seen a piece of life as Woody Allen understands life, and it is funny and well acted, as the actors seem comfortable enough in Woody Allen's films, they like acting here, and in some cases they give some of the best roles (I liked the performances of Brolin, Jones and Watts).

There are little things that I know about the next year (no fortune telling skills, sorry), but one if them is that for sure there will be a new film by Woody Allen on the screens. Maybe it will be about a director making one movie each year, I do not know. Chances are that I will like it.

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 slut 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")

– We have always been willing to see Woody Allen movies if for no other reason then to see where his head is at. He always comes up with an interesting group of characters who are struggling in great angst in which we can some way identify with or at least understand. This time he gives us various configurations of couples who are each having trouble with their relationships and for the most part they each have some very wishful fantasies. The oldest couple has split because Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) feels he should have relationship with hot young blond (Lucy Punch). His disappointed wife Helena (Gemma Jones) falls under the spell of a fortune teller (Pauline Collins) whom she believes hook line and sinker. Helena then falls in love with a widower Jonathan (Roger Ashton-Griffiths) who needs the permission of his dead wife to marry her. Alfie and Helena have a daughter Sally (Naomi Watts) who is married to Roy, a doctor (Josh Broslin) who doesn't practice but is trying to produce a second novel rather than a family and prefers looking out his apartment window at Dia (Freida Pinto), a beautiful woman whom he is convinced would be the perfect partner for him. The doctor – now writer's wife really imagines that she would be better off with her art dealer boss (Antonio Banderes). If she can't have him she would hope that her mother would lend her money to open her own art gallery but the mother doesn't think the stars are aligned right. There are many more twists and turns in this study of the human psyche. There is also a narrator to the movie (Zak Orth) who really doesn't tell us very much. Allen has a writing style that gives the audience a feel for who are these people and the dilemmas they face from their own point of view. The problem is that when all is said and done, we didn't really care that much about any of the characters despite the unique story and a great cast. There were some good comedic moments but overall it is a sad commentary about human nature. (2010) FilmRap.com

This is a good movie and I would watch five minutes of a Woody Allen movie rather than see 95% of the movies out there. Not to get sidetracked, but it's not ambitious so you don't have to know what happens exactly, you don't have to have it gift-wrapped, it just is, but it didn't set itself up to be groundbreaking philosophical conceptual contrived tripe. It's just a film, as Mr. Allen reminds us with his pretentiously mundane American voice-over narrator. Which turns the focus onto the characters and relationships. Which is a good place to be when you have great actors. I really enjoyed the film. But the main thing I felt compelled to say (and I haven't written anything on here in years) is that Anthony Hopkins is so good, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. It's hardly a 'crowning achievement' to his career, but it is to me, because he so earnestly and vulnerably performed this role, it defied many things (I'll name two): 1) his own career and his tendency to portray epic characters and all that intelligent bravado within.. in the movie he is completely defeated without even a proper stage, a flimsy (intentionally) comedy he has no business being in (of course he does), in which his character is confronted with mortality and insignificance, and ultimately the relevant question I know he must ask himself, and seeing him deal with that in the smallness of the medium was astounding. Truly astounding. Because also 2) He shatters the Woody Allen film formula stereotype. I was expecting the Anthony Hopkins version of Woody Allen, and there was some of that, a la Kenneth Branaugh in Celebrity. But whether it was all Hopkins or all Allen or both his portrayal rejects the typical neurotic response to Allen's comio-dramatic situations and instead shows us a golden vein of truth that for me was completely unexpected, impeccably performed and very moving. I had been a huge Hopkins fan since Nixon and in recent years had become leery of his projects to the extent I didn't bother to consider going to see them anymore. But I knew the combination of Woody Allen and he would be something special. For Allen fans, to me his acting breaks the Allen mold, crushes it, and I left the theater a bit unnerved and touched. I haven't read anyone else comment on this in a similar way and had to say something.

Woody Allen's latest movie, YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER is filled with good bits, fine moments of acting and wonderful cinematography. The story, an off-the-point series of musing about how truth does not make you happy, but hope and delusion do, might have been handled as more than a series of vignettes, linked by the people surrounding a divorced couple played by Gemma Jones and Anthony Hopkins, but it is not. As a result, what might have been a crackling nasty satire is more of a murky, drizzly minor-key tragedy, as everyone finds themselves miserable except for the crazy lady.

Despite this, and despite the fact that this movie could have been set any place without any effect on the performances, there are some wonderful scenes and moments. Hopkins, shorn of tics and erratically maintained accents, gives a simple, wonderful performance, perhaps his best in years, and Naomi Watts and Antonio Banderas play their scenes where they talk past each other very well. Only Josh Brolin seems to be miscast or misdirected -- however that may simply due to the fact that I have never really warmed to him as a performer, so that might be just me.

But the scenes don't really add up to much of anything. I begin to suspect that Woody Allen has reached that stage in his career when he has his skills fully under control and can tell any story he wishes to tell perfectly -- but has run out of stories that he wishes to tell, major points that he wishes to make, genres that he wishes to master. All that is left is to put together these meditations and hope that they add up to more than the sum of their parts.

Alas, despite many lovely parts, this one doesn't. I expect that, like me, most viewers will enjoy this movie and then, when they leave the theater, wish there was more.

Four people venture outside their marriages into affairs that promise greater excitement, fulfillment, whatever. All behave foolishly or recklessly in the process.

One dumps his aging wife to chase after young women and eventually marries a hooker so preposterously crude and stupid that you look forward with relish to the misery that is sure to plague him.

Another is a self-absorbed one-hit novelist who fritters away his days while his wife works for a living. He sponges off his mother in law while treating her with contempt. Eventually he poses as an accomplished novelist and convinces a woman about to be married to dump her fiancé. To prove his prowess as a novelist, he steals a manuscript by a more talented friend who is in a coma and submits it to a publisher as his own.

The third, his wife, assumes that her married boss has a thing for her when in fact he is having an affair with her friend.

Only the fourth, the mother-in-law, ends up reasonably happy with her new love--and she is completely batty.

Some of Woody Allen's hilarious humor would have helped us to forget the fact that none of these characters shows the slightest trace of real emotion or is even likable.

This movie is really a cold fish.

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.

Set this time in England, Woody Allen once again invites us into a world of irony and people wanting 'better' than what they have as their present does not fulfill their satisfaction. The title is quite open to interpretation. It gives the impression of 'the prince charming' that straight women fantasize about and dream to end up with. However, there is also another hint which refers to the chaperon who is waiting at the finish line. Rather than exploring, this time Allen just gives us a glimpse into the lives of his key characters. All the characters are in an unfulfilling relationship. Helena (Gemma Jones) is abandoned by Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) and seeks comfort in a prostitute (Lucy Punch) younger than his own daughter. His daughter Sally (Naomi Watts) fantasizes about her boss (Antonio Banderas) while her husband (Josh Brolin) struggles to finish his novel until he peeps at Dia (Frieda Pinto), his neighbour.

While many felt the ending to be abrupt, there is a certain irony to it, where the characters who were seeking more than what they had continue to be unsatisfied, while those who were satisfied with what they had and lose it, find that happiness again (like the two idiots at the end). Allen's writing is faulty in places. For example, when Roy reveals to Dia how he had been peeping at her through their windows, instead of being concerned or excited, she acts as though his behaviour was that of a gentleman.

On the technical side, the film is well shot, in the typical Woody Allen (70s and 80s) fashion. The cinematography and soundtrack are amusing. The sets look polished but not staged.

Allen assembles a strong cast. Most of the performances are excellent. Anthony Hopkins, Gemma Jones, Naomi Watts and Lucy Punch own their scenes. Antonio Banderas too shines in a subtle performance and Josh Brolin is great as the self-centered writer. Freida Pinto was the weakest link. In all fairness, her character suffered from flawed writing.

While this may not rank among Allen's best work, it's still worth a watch especially for those who enjoyed the kind of cinema he made in the 70s and 80s.

Woody Allen is, of course, a native New Yorker, and most of his films from the earlier part of his career, including masterpieces like "Annie Hall", "Manhattan", "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Crimes and Misdemeanours", are not only set in the city, but can also be seen as celebrations of it. Starting in the mid-2000s, however, Woody began to make films with a European setting. "Match Point" from 2005 was the first of a number of films set in London, and he has also made films set in Paris, Rome and Barcelona. "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" is another production from Woody's English period.

The plot centres upon Alfie and Helena, a recently divorced sixty-something couple, their daughter Sally and her American husband Roy. Alfie is a keep-fit fanatic who cannot bear the idea that he is getting older, and has divorced Helena because he hopes to attract a younger woman. Sally and Roy, a novelist, are also having difficulties in their marriage and both are fantasising about having affairs, Sally with Greg, her boss at the art gallery where she works, and Roy with their attractive neighbour Dia. Roy is having difficulties not only in his marriage but also in his writing career, which he attempts to revive by plagiarising an unpublished novel written by a friend who he wrongly believes to have died in a car crash. Alfie eventually marries a young woman named Charmaine who calls herself an actress but is actually a prostitute. Helena, distraught at the collapse of her marriage, begins consulting a fortune teller, Cristal, for spiritual guidance.

Allen said that he made the film because he was "interested in the concept of faith in something". Given his reputation as a thorough-going rationalist, it seems strange for him to have made a film in which fortune-telling and New Age spirituality play an important part. Certainly, Woody leaves us in no doubt that he views Cristal and people like her as unscrupulous charlatans, yet Helena, however deluded her beliefs may be, seems happier than any of the other characters. They are all in search of worldly, material goals- wealth, success, fame or sexual fulfilment, yet all are doomed to failure and disappointment, so much so that the film could be subtitled (to borrow a phrase from Samuel Johnson) "The Vanity of Human Wishes".

Helena, however, with her belief in a higher power, seems to raise above the mundane ambitions of the reast of her family, and she is the only character for whom there is a happy ending, when she meets Jonathan, a widower who shares her beliefs. (He believes that his late wife has given her approval from the afterlife to his relationship with Helena). As Woody put it "We need some delusions to keep us going. And the people who successfully delude themselves seem happier than the people who can't".

"You Will Meet..." is not really vintage Woody Allen compared to masterpieces like, say, "Annie Hall" or "Hannah and Her Sisters". It is, however, a well-made drama incorporating some attractive photography of London and some very good acting performances. For me the ones that stood out came from Anthony Hopkins as Alfie, determined to grow old as disgracefully as possible, Gemma Jones as Helena, desperate to find meaning in a world which seems to be falling apart after the dissolution of her long marriage, Josh Brolin as the sleazy Roy, a one-hit wonder desperate for a second hit, and Lucy Punch as Charmaine, a girl who reminded me of several rather dubious British models, "reality" stars and media personalities. (No names mentioned). Today she would probably be a social media "influencer", a profession which did not really exist in 2010. As in most of his best films Woody gives us something to think about while amusing us with the antics of his characters. I preferred this film to the overrated "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and "Match Point", which has a very effective ending but takes a tedious long time before reaching it. 7/10.

The story begins with a quote from Shakespeare's Macbeth. It is appropriate since the action is set in London. Helena, a woman of a certain age, has been dumped by Alfie, her husband of forty years in exchange for a young floozy. As a way of consolation, Helena begins going to a seer that is more interested in the way she will be paying her sessions, rather than in telling the truth. Alfie has hooked with Charmaine, a gold digger, much younger than himself. With the help of Viagra, something that takes a while to take effect, Alfie is able to perform with the oversexed Charmaine.

Meanwhile, Helena's daughter Sally, is having problems of her own. She is married to Roy, a former doctor that has decided to try his hand at writing. Roy and Sally's marriage is obviously over. Roy catches the sight of an exotic looking Dia, a young woman who lives across the street from their place. When they finally meet, Roy tells her the right things, for she falls for his lame stories.

Roy has another big problem: he is blocked. His last submission to the publisher is rejected by the editor, who feels Roy has lost his touch. An opportunity Roy never expected falls on his lap after a friend, one of his poker playing partners, has written an excellent book. When a car accident fatally injures Roy's friend, he decides to submit the other man's manuscript as his own, which is accepted by the editorial.

With the encouragement of Helena, Sally begins to pay close attention to Greg, the interesting owner of the art gallery where she works. Greg, in turn, has other things in mind. Lucky for Sally, she does not make a fool of herself. After realizing she has no future with Greg, Sally decides to open her own gallery, but for that she needs money, something she needs badly from her mother.

Woody Allen's new film has all the elements of his previous work in it, but somehow it is predictable. There are the clever dialog between the characters, something one expects from his movies. Working in London in what feels like typical English situations, does not have the spark of most of the films he made in New York. Perhaps his choice of characters, not as clever as his Manhattan denizens, sort of slow the process we were accustomed in his better films. It is by no means, a failure, but after all is said and done, Mr. Allen has done better.

Best thing in the film is Josh Brolin's Roy. This actor keeps surprising in unexpected ways. He is truly versatile as he shows in the film. Naomi Watts has done better. Anthony Hopkins has a small part. Gemma Jones is good as Helena and Lucy Punch makes a delightful Charmaine. Antonio Banderas is seen as the gallery owner. Freida Pinto is the beautiful Dia. The supporting English cast does a fine job, specially Pauline Collins, Johnathan Ashton-Griffiths, and Celia Imrie.

The cinematography of Vilmos Zsigmond enhances the look of the film.