You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

Sometimes incisive, sometimes plain old tut- the ouvre of Woody Allen will never be completely admired nor completely written off.
These days he churns out films with an almost reckless abandon. A diplomatic could only describe him as prolific. Me, i generally like the guy. I love Small Time Crooks and Sweet And Lowdown; i liked Vicky Christina Barcelona and Whatever Works recently but he doesn't hit every time and while I appreciate the need to be active and creative... i don't see why he has to maintain this almost yeoman-like production line of films every year. No one in the western film industry works like that, in writing and directing a new film every year since 1983 (?!) and i guess we wouldn't mind if some of them didn't seem so aimless but then next year, maybe he's back on form again- you can never totally write him off. Despite moments and a great cast, 'You Will Meet...' is one of those aimless ones.
Most of his films are about romantic couplings and this one is as one might gather no different. It covers the entanglements of 6 or 8people- newly divorced old couple Gemma Jones and Anthony Hopkins, their daughter Naomi Watts and her husband Josh Brolin as well Freda Pinto, Antonio Banderas and Lucy Punch, who variously represent new starts for the 1st four.
One of the strange things about Woody Allen films is his voice and style are so unique to him that it bleeds through and you start hearing it in other male roles on his films; Michael Caine in Hannah and Her Sisters, John Cusack in Bullets Over Broadway amongst others. It can be curious and/or jarring. But when it's coming out of the mouths of Brolin and Hopkins it just seems unconvincing. Now I think those two are very accomplished actors and It's hardly the shark-jump of say, Stone Cold Steve Austin turning up in an Almodovar picture but these guys are just plain shitty at delivering Woody Allen dialogue. Like creaky. Like they've never seen a Woody Allen movie before...  but that can't be the case because you wouldn't turn up unless you had and he only gives you the script on the day (probably.) It's not just those guys- there are other actors that can't deliver the one-liners and you're stuck watching them fall flat. I am reticent to blame the actors though; you don't really elect to be in a Woody Allen movie, he picks you and I'm sure he only directs people by telling them simply either 'try it again another way' and 'don't do it again like that' until it looks like something he's happy with. Not that doesn't work sometimes but you have to be a significant character actor like Gemma Jones and the glorious Lucy Punch for that to work. It's like Allen is so goofy about how nuts it is that Hannibal Lektor is saying his words, he doesn't really care about what he does with it. When you watch Brolin doing it, you think if this was nebbish New Yorker Woody you might buy the ironic lechery and jagging-about he does but Brolin is a good looking Californian and it really does not land.


I watched You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (2010) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Faster (2010)...