When trying to describe the new Woody Allen movie, you inevitably end up comparing it to an older Woody Allen movie. “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” resembles a number of the nervous auteur’s previous films, both in its aesthetic choices and in its deeper philosophical prodding. Thankfully, ‘Stranger’ fills you with mostly happy memories and sidesteps the locked-in-a-drawer-for-30-years mothball mustiness of last year’s so-so “Whatever Works.”
In typical Allen fashion, the movie is drawn by a series of relationships — relationships that are confused and complicated and hopelessly screwed up. The central turmoil is between Roy (Josh Brolin), a once-promising novelist that has fallen into mediocrity and Sally (Naomi Watts), a woman who desperately wants a career and a child and is exasperated by Roy’s unwillingness to support either. Roy starts to daydream about the lovely girl in red who lives in the apartment across the way (Freida Pinto) while Sally has similar fantasies about her boss (Antonio Banderas). Sally’s father Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) has just gotten a divorce from her mother Helena (Gemma Jones) and responds by embracing his newfound bachelorhood and promptly getting engaged to young tart Charmaine (Lucy Punch). Helena responds by going to a psychic, who gives her advice on all of the people in her life, including her daughter and son-in-law.
There isn’t much plot, per se, and the title is a bit misleading, as it suggests something far more sinister and atmospheric than this relatively light comedy delivers. (That said, it could have overdosed on the moodiness and ended up like the god awful “Cassandra’s Dream,” which had atmosphere but not much else.) But there are some moments of absolute bleakness tucked away inside the misunderstandings and neurotic conversations about fate and destiny (and the accompanying conversations about fate and destiny that don’t actually exist). In particular the movie takes a rather bleak approach to the creation of art, with Roy’s inability to complete and sell a new novel serving as the most dramatic and emotionally engaging knot in the somewhat ungainly story.
Still, all the actors equip themselves nicely. In particular, Brolin and Hopkins, who shine as both younger and older stand-ins for Allen himself (there’s a moment where Brolin is waiting outside of Pinto’s apartment and he tucks one arm underneath the other and it could have totally been Allen). His performance isn’t showy, like Kenneth Branagh’s take on Allen in “Celebrity;” it’s subtle and finely calibrated. The same could be said of Hopkins, who nicely balances a kind of zestful exuberance with the pain and experience of a 40-year marriage quietly dissolving.
Watts does a great job, too, it should be added; and it’s nice to see her in a movie where she’s not crying and screaming the whole time. (There is some crying and screaming, but it’s kept to a minimum.) She holds herself admirably amidst the heavyweight cast and makes you sympathize with her plight in a way that many of the other characters nimbly dodge (Hopkins’ relationship with his young paramour, for instance, is often sabotaged by cartoony broadness).
There’s also Allen’s dogged refusal to show anything even remotely resembling an action sequence. One of the movie’s key plot points (which we can’t give away here) would have made for an exciting little set piece, had he actually, you know, shown it. Instead, it’s conveyed as a piece of mumbled dialogue. It didn’t have to be the car chase from “Death Proof,” but the sequence (and the entire movie) could have benefited from a little more zip.
Still, overall, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” is very entertaining, never dull and hits a few boldly emotional truths (there’s a scene towards the end between Watts and her brother that is gutting). Thematically, its closest cousin is probably “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” even if this movie can’t reach that level of quality, if only for the fact that its freshness isn’t quite there and this movie handles the weightier philosophical issues without as much finesse. Undoubtedly, you will draw your own comparisons to his previous work – the London location (“Match Point!”), the feisty hooker (“Mighty Aphrodite!”), the affairs (um, any Woody Allen movie!); but the movie never deteriorates into a series of tired greatest hits moments. No, there’s enough here to really get invested in, even if you have that vague feeling that you’ve seen it all before. Familiarity, after all, isn’t always a bad thing. [B]
