Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger: Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts (top); Watts, Josh Brolin (bottom)
Directed and written by Woody Allen, and starring Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas, Freida Pinto, Ewen Bremner, Gemma Jones, Anna Friel, Lucy Punch, and Pauline Collins, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger received the mostly lukewarm-to-negative reviews that have been typical for Allen's films — with the exception of Match Point and Vicky Cristina Barcelona — released in the last 15 years or so.
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger was screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Allen was present to answer questions from reporters, and according to Salon's Andrew O'Hehir, the 74-year-old filmmaker kept forgetting names of films and performers and looked older than Manoel de Oliveira (who's 101).
"Life! I do believe it's a grim, nightmarish, meaningless experience. One must have one's illusions to go on living," Allen, chirpier than ever, is quoted as saying.
Below are snippets from several You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger reviews.
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger will be released by Sony Pictures Classics in the United States in the fall.
"The grass is always greener in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Woody Allen's roundelay of perplexed characters chasing illusions rather than reality. As a film from Allen's ongoing British/European period, where he spins out comic trifles or morality plays that drift seemingly free of national context, the comedy is more amusing than most, though it lacks the vibrant spirit of Vicky Cristina Barcelona. This is Woody in a bemused mood, devilishly complicating his characters' lives with follies and foibles of their own making until he ties each protagonist into a comic pretzel. Then he takes a tea break." Kirk Honeycutt in The Hollywood Reporter.
"Woody Allen threw up a bit of a misfire last year with Whatever Works, a film I seemed to enjoy a little more than most, but would never argue with anyone that disliked it with any kind of real passion. His 2010 entry, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger isn't an improvement as it lacks any real sense of worth. 'Why is this story being told?' would be an appropriate question even though you are mildly intrigued by where it may go." Brad Brevet at Rope of Silicon.
"You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger has the usually Woody Allen stuff about infidelity and self-deluded characters. It’s funny and more than delivers for what Allen has been known for lately: a little sex, a few laughs, and enough depth to give you something to think about later." Sasha Stone at Awards Daily.
"The atrociously titled You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is one of Woody Allen’s 'fables' — which could almost be code, at this point, for the flavorless, dry-cookie thing that results when he writes and directs a comedy on autopilot. The film is notable, if that’s the word, for being the first movie Allen has made in London that is every bit as bad as his most awful New York comedies, like Anything Else and Melinda and Melinda." Owen Gleiberman at Entertainment Weekly.
""You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" is an old-fashioned roundelay in which old marriages crumble and new relationships begin, but one in which nobody gets what they want. Or rather, people who get what they want do so under false pretenses, because they are literally living a lie. This is a universe where emotional honesty is a liability that leads to loneliness and betrayal, while emotional fidelity is entirely out of the question." Andrew O'Hehir at Salon.com.