SummaryFollows a pair of married couples, Alfie and Helena, and their daughter Sally and husband Roy, as their passions, ambitions, and anxieties lead them into trouble and out of their minds. After Alfie leaves Helena to pursue his lost youth and a free-spirited call girl named Charmaine, Helena abandons rationality and surrenders her life to ...
SummaryFollows a pair of married couples, Alfie and Helena, and their daughter Sally and husband Roy, as their passions, ambitions, and anxieties lead them into trouble and out of their minds. After Alfie leaves Helena to pursue his lost youth and a free-spirited call girl named Charmaine, Helena abandons rationality and surrenders her life to ...
Allen has been criticized for leaving some of the plot lines up in the air and several characters in the lurch. But he seems to be making a point: Neat Hollywood endings are as phony and dangerous as Cristal's ramblings.
This kinder, gentler Allen is still clever, still amusing, and the film itself is a confection tempting enough to consider a taste. Yet there is that empty-calorie letdown after it's over. Maybe it's time to book another trip to Spain.
"Not only there is no God, but try finding a plumber on weekends."
Sally Naomi Watts / art expert and Roy Josh Brolin / physician and author, in truths that medical writer, surviving on "food" maternal. Roy and Sally are married. Sally is angry with Roy, wants a child, he was not. Roy after a successful first book, fails to finish second. E 'became an insecure, weak, maybe, but ... Even Helena Gemma Jones / Sally's mother, is "fueled" by her former husband, Alfie Anthony Hopkins /, which "feeds", the young and handsome escort Charmaine Lucy Punch /. Helena, after the collapse of marriage to Alfie, come in alcohol, or rather it is the alcohol that comes in her. The new goal of his life is crushing loneliness that creates deep inner reflection and behavioral concerns strange. Those who share his days, he received quite a few jolts Roy and Sally experienced this, every day /. In the life of Alfie, meanwhile, enters Charmaine, and with it the pill of the weekend for the moment are the erotic fool head off. But, you know, the sildefinal have any contraindication to Alfie, however, does not matter that he could not distinguish the green of a table, from red to a bank account to languish, he only interested in the pink. Group, are part Greg Antonio Banderas /, Dia Freida Pinto / widower and Jonathan Roger Ashton-Griffiths /. Greg, the famous art dealer, inadvertently fed the hopes of Sally, Dia, a scholar of the composer Luigi Boccherini, feeds off those dreams of Roy and his family. Jonathan, a widower and anthroposophy, sells books high and esoteric symbolism. Who more than he can feed the hopes of Helena? - A friend presumed dead, pregnant with the presumption of paternity, an alleged seer, do the rest. Unfulfilled needs and desires, create frustration, regardless of the primary causes. Aggression is just around the corner, the primal instincts take over. They jump the friendships, loves, marriages. Certainties become uncertainties, dreams become reality and reality is often an illusion. Love is not loving, not paint and draw, is not climbing up.
Allan Stewart Konigsberg, aka Woody Allen that, like it or not. To see the faces of the audience, the show within the show, the thumb is toward, not once but twice. I do not agree. Why a man who says "Not only there is no God, but try finding a plumber on weekends." Or, "For starters you should start dying, and so Tricca tracchete trauma is already looking beyond that." Is a man who gives himself and not for stage fiction. And then, I do not agree because the film gave me the opportunity to reread the words of a famous Italian "Codest today we can only tell you what we are, what we do not want."
Good Ciak!
Classy Woody Allen...funny, witty and nice story. However it could be a little longer, and i wish ending to be bit more transparent. Always nice to see Josh Brolin - Goonie celebrity...
Hardly a laff riot, but then that's been true of Allen's movies for a while. It is, however, briskly cynical about human nature, graciously forgiving about human foibles, and situationally amusing about the spectacles otherwise sane people make of themselves when they trust their fates to the stars.
Like the worst of late-period Allen, the film recycles character types from his previous work without inventing new reasons to summon them into existence. They're left stranded, seven characters in search of an author.
In practice, and played as farce, the characters are one-dimensional cutouts kept at a dogged remove. Their miseries are a bore – maybe to Allen, too, who abruptly ends the film, after so much inaction, when it finally catches some dramatic traction.
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger finds veteran director Woody Allen on autopilot. Essentially a film about people discovering that life is largely meaningless and that delusions keep us happy and willing to move on, the film is pretty bleak and cynical. Starring an ensemble cast of Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Gemma Jones, Antonio Banderas, Lucy Punch, and Freida Pinto, the film's plot is pretty simple. Getting older, a woman's husband leaves her for a call girl in search of meaning and youth. To cope, she begins to meet with a fortune teller. Though those around her tell her that it is not real, she begins to believe in reincarnation and that she will soon meet a "tall dark stranger". By the end of the film, it becomes clear she was the smart one.
Some could interpret this film as slightly anti-religion. Surely, many have declared that religion is merely a delusion. As Allen is an atheist and he has even put religion on the level of fortune tellers, this angle certainly makes sense. Yet, this is simplistic. If anything, Allen is encouraging people to "delude" themselves by believing whatever they want to make themselves happy. While Helena Shepridge (Gemma Jones) is left by her husband, distraught, and lost, she is the only happy character at the end. Meeting a man, Jonathan (Roger Ashton-Griffiths), who owns an Occult bookstore and believes in reincarnation as well, Helena is finally happy after a long time. Their mutual delusions and belief in reincarnation and the power of fortune tellers has left them deeply in love and satisfied with their lives. This cannot be said for any character who has given into lust via the marrying of call girls, leaving their spouses, full-on adultery, are failures, are devious, or just deeply unhappy. Turns out that if they just went to the fortune teller as well, their lives would have been far happier and more fulfilling.
Aside from Helena, everybody else suffers from incredible strife in their lives, but possibly none more than Roy Channing (Josh Brolin). Married to Sally (Naomi Watts), who wants to have sex without contraception in order to have a child, Roy is struggling. He does not want to have a child and is set to give into lust and learn that the grass is always greener on the other side. Or, in his case, the girl is always hotter through the window. A one-hit wonder in the literature world, Roy cannot write anymore and keeps turning out books nobody wants to publish. So, he opts to steal the book of his dead friend and claim it as his own, which of course raises problems when the friend is not dead. He also leaves his wife for Dia (Freida Pinto) because he thought she looked hot through the window. Sadly for Roy, the film ends with him seeing Sally through the window and coming to the realization that she too is attractive. Poor Roy. All self-inflicted of course, but he was one of the most ardent opposers of the fortune teller for Helena. Moral of the story here? Find what makes you happy and do not pick at it. Alfie (Anthony Hopkins), the husband of Helena, suffers from this when he marries a call girl and then wants to get back together with Helena when he realizes she is not a great wife. Roy and Alfie both picked at their happiness is search of something more and to pursue a path they were not meant to pursue. They refused to go with the flow and now wind up as two of the most unhappy characters in the film. In many ways, they tried to live out a life that Allen, at the beginning and end of the film, has already declared is meaningless. If life is pointless, it is better to delude yourself into believing something instead of pursuing meaning and purpose. If you do pursue it, it will leave you lacking anything.
Of course, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is a very philosophical and existential film. Many of Woody's films are and this one is no exception. Yet, it is very fleeting. It drops tid bits of opinions and philosophies and then scurries away. It is not nearly as funny or impactful as his best works and is, at worst, a largely forgettable experience. Within a few weeks, it is likely that this film will escape my mind. Though invariably a good time and some easy, but smart, watching, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is one that only Woody Allen fans should really opt to watch. For those who are not a fan of the guy, this film will really, really ****. Fortunately, his cynicism and existentialism are always incredibly watchable and with great actors doing their thing in a Woody Allen film, this one will never be a totally irredeemable watch. As a whole, the film is flawed, but its story is so engrossing, so odd, and its actors so good, it is hard to look away from.
Look, if you don't like Woody Allen for personal reasons, or if you just don't "get" his movies, then skip this film. If you appreciate the man's work then check this out. The critics almost had me believing he'd finally made a bad movie. This is very typical Woody Allen, same style as always. All talk, no explosions, and no gore. The story could have used one or two more twists, but then again he is an aging writer and is probably not as interested in being clever as a younger writer would. All in all, woody hasn't changed, and that's good.
The worse Woody Allen film I have seen for years, lacking both the venomous and pungent humour he is known for, or the atmospheric and mysterious feel he has developed in his more recent features. The crescendo/irony falls flat and no clear resolution is given to almost all the substories apart from that of Helena. However, a bad Woody Allen film, still has many enjoyable moments and clever twists.
Woody Allen fait partie de ces réalisateurs qui ont le don de faire de la merde avec une excellente distribution, ce qui n'est pas donné à tout le monde. Il a aussi le don du remplissage inepte, de faire des films avec du "rien", ce qui n'est pas forcément donné à tout le monde non plus. Quel génie ce Woody, il aurait dû se lancer dans du lard con-temporain, des connes-pressions de Chéjar ou du barbouillage à la Picachiotte ou encore des quadrichromies à la Warlol.
Cela dit, plus le titre est long, plus le film est au fond du trou d'où il ne peut plus sortir et vers lequel il tente d'entraîner le plus d'intellos binoclards possibles. Du coup, tout Télérama est tombé dedans, ça porte bonheur il paraît. Moi, même en avance rapide je cherche encore le moindre intérêt dans cette mélasse qui prétend faire du "cinéma". On aimerait en rire. En vain.