Susan Granger’s review of “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Woody Allen’s has been intrigued with fortune-telling before but never more so than in this rumination on the fantasy of love and the meaning of life. Set in London (where he did “Match Point,” “Scoop” and “Cassandra’s Dream”) to the strains of “When You Wish Upon a Star,” Allen has assembled a star-studded comedy of manners and morals, involving the melodramatic, wish-fulfillment fantasies of two couples.
According to the Shakespeare-referencing narrator, after 40 years of marriage, aging Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) divorces distraught Helena (Gemma Jones), much to the consternation of their grown daughter Sally (Naomi Watts) and her nervous ‘formerly promising’ novelist husband Roy (Josh Brolin). Afraid life is passing him by, Viagra-gulping Alfie then takes up with Charmaine (Lucy Punch), a gold-digging call-girl, while sherry-tippling Helena places her faith in Crystal Delgiorno (Pauline Collins), a charlatan soothsayer, and seeks comfort from an occult book shop owner, Jonathan (Roger Ashton-Griffith), who is obsessed with contacting the spirit of his beloved, recently deceased wife. Meanwhile, wistful Sally develops a secret crush on her handsome boss Greg (Antonio Banderas), a flirtatious art gallery owner whose marriage is floundering, and Roy fixates on exotic-looking Dia (Freida Pinto), a mysterious, guitar-strumming neighbor whom he surreptitiously watches from his window.
Neither the script nor the direction ignites, except for a few wry one-liners and the astute observation that “Illusions work better than medicine,” so it’s up to the stalwart cast to carry the load. Fortunately, Anthony Hopkins is more believable as Woody’s angst-riddled surrogate – an older man involved with a much younger woman – than nebbishy Larry David was in “Whatever Works.” Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin and Lucy Punch deliver strong support, and it’s encouraging to see Freida Pinto again after her enchanting debut in “Slumdog Millionaire.” Always inventive cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond makes effective use of the British cityscape.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” is a superficially supernatural 6. Not one of Woody Allen’s best but an amusing diversion.
