Woody Allen film tackles life’s big questions
My favourite Woody Allen film is Hannah and Her Sisters . In it Allen plays a man afraid of dying who searches for meaning and comfort in spirituality; eventually his better judgment prevails. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger also explores the problems of wish fulfilment and the divide between skepticism and spirituality but unlike Hannah and Her Sisters it provides no concise answer. Or maybe it does. No it actually does when at the beginning and end of the film its narrator tells us that life is “full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”
The plot follows two unhappy couples and their improbable escapes with Anthony Hopkins and Gemma Jones playing Alfie and Helena a couple recently divorced after decades of marriage. Alfie attempts to regain his youth by obsessive exercise; he leaves Helena moves into a bachelor pad drives a convertible and so on. In a montage of Alfie adjusting to his new lifestyle we see him struggling to read the bill at a club — one where he’s paying for a younger colleague. It’s an amusing scene that’s also a little heartbreaking and one that further explores the perils of wish fulfilment.
Alfie courts and becomes engaged to Charmaine a much younger and trashy prostitute (played by the very funny Lucy Punch) who while supplying the majority of the film’s comic relief is also its most bleak consequence. Much like Allen’s character in Hannah and Her Sisters Alfie’s fear of death is closely associated with having a male heir. Unlike the optimistic ending of Allen’s earlier film here we see Alfie’s devastating realization that nothing — not his lifestyle nor having a son — will provide any comfort.
Helena meanwhile finds solace in a fortune teller something her daughter Sally (Naomi Watts) encourages mostly to keep her mother busy. The more Helena relies on the mystic however the more untethered she becomes placing all of her important decisions into the palm reader’s hands; eventually Sally has no control over her mother. The conversations about mysticism and superstitions between Helena and Sally’s disapproving skeptic husband Roy (Josh Brolin) are especially amusing with sharp clever dialogue and expert comedic timing. And while these conversations have plenty of laugh-out-loud moments they also provide the central question of the film: Does a belief in spirituality and fate blind us to reality? Or as skeptics is it unrealistic to believe we are in control of our lives?
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger’s second unhappy couple involves Roy and Sally. Roy a failed writer and trained doctor is looking for an escape — first from his increasingly batty mother-in-law then from his wife who pressures him to start a family and move on from writing. He watches a beautiful younger woman in an adjacent apartment romances her and eventually has a novel published.
Sally meanwhile fantasizes about a relationship with her boss (played by Antonio Banderas) and decides to pursue a more independent career. Like Alfie each follows their desires but these are left unfulfilled. In fact it seems only Helena whose life is entirely controlled by spirituality and who makes no decisions for herself has a possibility of happiness.
The film is full of many twists and turns but in the end we’re left wondering not what’s in store for these characters (or even which couple has a more favourable outlook) but rather what it takes to be happy. It might not be as sensuous or dramatic as Vicky Cristina Barcelona or Match Point but it balances some serious introspection and exceptional comedic moments. Effortlessly well made You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger’s strong cast does Allen’s clever dialogue justice.
