Woody Allen presents “A Tall Dark Stranger”
Forty-one years as a writer-director, 39 features at a rate of a film every year for the last two decades even as he has approached a seniority (he'll be 75 in December) when a slower pace, or retirement, might be an option -- Woody Allen's filmography is a remarkable achievement by measure of perseverance alone.
But the scale of his achievement is far greater, since Allen has made only original scripts (occasionally written with a partner, usually on his own) -- and because long ago, first as a stand-up comedian and then as a moviemaker, he charted his own universe. Glib urban professionals, often more self-conscious than self-aware, stumble through Manhattan, their egos colliding as if in a Coney Island bumper-car ride. For decades, Allen the actor was the confused creature at its centre: an analysand in Wonderland crying out for love but unable to realise it when it came his way, or hold onto it when he had it. That was agony for the Woody male, fun for audiences observing his crises from the safe border of the other side of the screen. As Allen himself has probably said, tragedy is what happens to you; comedy is what happens to someone else.
Advancing age has removed Allen from his familiar place on screen: just once in the past seven years has he appeared in his own pictures. ("For years I played the romantic lead," he said at today's press conference, "then I got too old.") And the exigencies of movie finance have sent this boutique filmmaker abroad for backing and locations; this New Yorkiest of auteurs has become a rootless cosmopolitan. Of his last six films, he shot only one, “Whatever Works,” in New York. He went to Spain for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and to England for the other four: “Match Point,” “Scoop,” “Cassandra's Dream” and now “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” (Oddly, he's never directed a film in France, where he is revered by critics and was awarded the Legion d'honneur.)
In Allen's new film, four folks in one family fall out of one relationship and leap headlong into another. Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) has left Helena (Gemma Jones), his wife of 40 years, for the 20-something blond “actress” aka call girl, Charmaine (Lucy Punch). Helena, under the spell of a spiritualist, finds a kindred soul in Jonathan (Roger Ashton-Grifiths). Alfie's and Helena's daughter Sally (Naomi Watts), who works in an art gallery, is infatuated with the gallery's owner Greg (Antonio Banderas). And Sally's husband Roy (Josh Brolin), a novelist agonising over the reception of his latest manuscript becomes entranced by Dia (Freida Pinto of “Slumdog Millionaire”), the lovely young woman he sees in a window across the courtyard.
From this outline you will notice a standard Allen roundelay: people obsessed with love, but with a short emotional attention span, seeking the one person they think will solve their problems. In the Allen fashion, ardour soon dissipates into a reality as poignant and funny as it’s embarrassing.
Another Allen fixation is death. Sally tells her mother, “I fear that you will meet the tall, dark stranger we'll all meet.” Helena finds that her new love is still attached to his dead wife, and observes ruefully, “I lost him to another woman, a deceased one ...They're often the stiffest competition.”
The movie is easy to take, and perceptive in men's desires for things they can't have. When Roy moves out of Peggy's place and into Dia's apartment, he now looks longingly at the new woman in the window: his estranged wife. But “Tall Dark Stranger” shows a top film artiste in a holding pattern. For those who find this minor Woody, no need to fret long. He's already at work on his next film, and this time there will be a French connection. Among his stars is Carla Bruni, wife of French President Nicholas Sarkozy. That relationship should make for a piquant group photo on Cannes' red carpet next year.
Source: Time
Comments