'You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger' a disappointment

Director: Woody Allen

Cast: Josh Brolin, Gemma Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts

A new Allen film should be welcome, yet here we are sadly disappointed by a film that offers us nothing of note other than the pointlessness of it all.

Allen as a director comes across here as a fatigued man who has run out of originality, a sense of observation and the ability to consider the human condition with the sharpness he once had.

Dedicated fans must pray he regains the verve he illustrated in so many of his

previous classics … and write this one off as a miss.

He has, of course, the basis of a much, much better film but fails to construct anything upon it … we are presented with the typical Allen characters in freefall in a plot that has a lot happening, to no real purpose.

Alfie (Hopkins) and Helena (Jones) and their daughter Sally (Watts) and husband Roy (Brolin) go through the motions of emotional meltdown: falling out, falling in love, having affairs, seeking something more meaningful, meeting weird characters … and none of it means anything to us, we simply don’t care about or relate to the people we are watching.

Even the fact that Allen sets what action there is in London seems a con since it’s a Hollywood version of London … it’s all so disappointing.

Star Rating: 2/5