Wow! Such a good movie.

hyped garbage

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Was Woody thinking sequel here. This nearly good movie just leaves one hanging. At times this film has a stage play feel. Not one of Woodys best. Anthony Hopkins plays the older man disillusioned with his spacey wife while his daughter played by Naomi Watts is wanting more then her writer husband ( Josh Brolin) is willing to give. The writer husband has a voyeurs eye and ogles a guitar playing beauty in a apartment across the street. Its gets complicated for all the characters and the they all just appear to run out of gas. Woody Allen has made memorable films like Manhattan and Annie Hall but this one just runs out of good script. I am very surprised that a fine actor like Hopkins agreed to take on this role...was he behind on his alimony payments?

I must admit, I found this Woody Allen comedy a surprisingly depressing film. Whereas in things like "Match Point" and "Blue Jasmine" his observations on human frailty were tempered by empathy for his characters, here he is less forgiving.Set in London, the story begins as Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) and Helena (Gemma Jones), split up. He attempts to recapture his lost youth with exercise, new clothes and a woman less than half his age while Helena is left adrift to seek counsel with a fortune-teller. The breakup affects their daughter, Sally (Naomi Watts), whose marriage to struggling writer Roy (Josh Brolin) is also going through a rough patch. Their lives seem in a fluid state and before the end, all the relationships fall apart and new ones form, although nearly all are thwarted in some way or other.There is angst all the way through this story. Woody Allen has a great ear for angst, but it's usually balanced with tremendous wit. However, I don't think the muse settled all that well on "I See a Tall Dark Stranger", and the stress he applies to his characters reveals merely self-obsession all round.Naomi Watts is someone who can breath life into any script, but I think Allen leaves her a bit stranded on this one. Usually we can sense when he is leading up to a punch line, we are used to the rhythm of his best works, but opportunities are lost here – the humour has a harder edge and the real zingers are missing.Part of the reason could be the narration. It has worked well in some of Woody Allen's films, however, in this one it actually takes the place of what probably should have been sharper exchanges between the characters.The tale is told in a wry manner, or maybe that should be a cynical one. The choice of music is light, which emphasises the irony that comes thick and fast especially at the end. If there are insights in the script, it is that people can be spiteful, and turn nasty when they don't get their own way.Over the decades, Woody Allen's films have run the gamut from brilliant to blah and not everyone will agree on which ones are which. For me, although it holds your attention, "I See a Tall Dark Stranger" is just too negative to be called a really enjoyable experience.

I love Woody Allen's films, but I freely admit that "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" from 2010 isn't one of my favorites.I had a problem because I really couldn't relate to any of the characters, but all of them were fleshed-out characters who wanted more than they had. And it's a top cast, which includes Sir Anthony Hopkins, Lucy Punch, Naomi Watts, Gemma Jones, Antonio Bandares, and Freida Pinto.Set in England, the story concerns the desires and struggles of people of different generations. Helena (Gemma Jones) is alone after her husband Alfie (Hopkins) left her. She has begun seeing a fortuneteller (Pauline Collins) and believes everything she says. Alfie, meanwhile, is in love with a hooker he met on an outcall (Punch) and has decided to marry her. She calls herself an actress, but as his daughter Sally (Watts) says to her husband Roy (Brolin), "The only acting she's ever done is faking an orgasm."Sally works in an art gallery and is mad for her boss (Banderas). Her husband was a one-hit novelist trying to come up with a second one and very frustrated. He fantasizes about the woman he sees across the way, Dia (Pinto). As he's trying to get that book together, Helena has been paying all the bills.Some of the outcomes for these people are good, some are not so good, though we really don't know what will ultimately happen to them. I guess his moral is, if you were happy before and lose that happiness, for whatever reason, you can be happy again. And if you were unhappy to begin with, and get what you think will make you happy - it won't.The only character not fleshed out sufficiently is Dia, and as a result, Freida Pinto doesn't register much.Everyone else is excellent, but the standout is Hopkins in a case of inspired casting. Normally this would be the Woody Allen role, and as you might imagine, there's no Woody in Hopkins. And there's none of his big characterizations in big movies that he has given us over the years. He's just a guy here who wanted something other than he had, who picks the wrong person and suffers for it. It's great when films are cast against type -- and it happens all too rarely.This movie has a narration throughout, some good music, and is pretty to look at. It will remind you of some of Allen's films from 30 years ago in look.

I hate romantic comedies. However, despite 'You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger' looking and sounding like a romantic comedy, there isn't that much romance in there. Or at least what little romance there is comes a noticeable second place to the comedy element.I haven't seen as many Woody Allen films as I probably should have, so I can't really compare how this one rates against the bulk of his others. But I can tell you that it's about a family in London and their various relationships, all of which are due to run into some major turbulence of one type or another. I can also mention that the script is pretty sharp. There is a lot of narration which I'm not sure how necessary it is. The film does tend to tell you a lot of what's going to happen before it happens. This could be considered 'lazy film-making' as it 'tells' rather than 'shows.' However, it does speed a lot of things on. The film isn't overly-long and it does seem to be pretty well-trimmed, keeping all the best bits in, instead of dragging the run-time out with a load of unnecessary scenes.The 'ensemble' cast all play their parts well. Of course you could say that one drawback from having a lot of great characters in a short film means that none of them are really 'fleshed-out' enough. But, they all turn in one excellent performance after the next.I'm not sure whether this is a 'spoiler' or just common sense, but, if you're expecting everything to turn out 'happy ever after' for absolutely everyone on screen, then you may be deluding yourself. Because there's so many characters, it would be madness to assume that everyone will be totally happy with the way things have turned out by the time the credits roll. However, there is a nice feeling of resolution to how things are left, meaning that most people should be satisfied.So, enjoy the comedy, don't expect too much romance, as the film centres on human nature rather than constantly showing us instances where couples fall in love, only to break up straight away, simply because the plot dictates that they must.http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/