Woody Allen is, of course, a native New Yorker, and most of his films from the earlier part of his career, including masterpieces like "Annie Hall", "Manhattan", "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Crimes and Misdemeanours", are not only set in the city, but can also be seen as celebrations of it. Starting in the mid-2000s, however, Woody began to make films with a European setting. "Match Point" from 2005 was the first of a number of films set in London, and he has also made films set in Paris, Rome and Barcelona. "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" is another production from Woody's English period.
The plot centres upon Alfie and Helena, a recently divorced sixty-something couple, their daughter Sally and her American husband Roy. Alfie is a keep-fit fanatic who cannot bear the idea that he is getting older, and has divorced Helena because he hopes to attract a younger woman. Sally and Roy, a novelist, are also having difficulties in their marriage and both are fantasising about having affairs, Sally with Greg, her boss at the art gallery where she works, and Roy with their attractive neighbour Dia. Roy is having difficulties not only in his marriage but also in his writing career, which he attempts to revive by plagiarising an unpublished novel written by a friend who he wrongly believes to have died in a car crash. Alfie eventually marries a young woman named Charmaine who calls herself an actress but is actually a prostitute. Helena, distraught at the collapse of her marriage, begins consulting a fortune teller, Cristal, for spiritual guidance.
Allen said that he made the film because he was "interested in the concept of faith in something". Given his reputation as a thorough-going rationalist, it seems strange for him to have made a film in which fortune-telling and New Age spirituality play an important part. Certainly, Woody leaves us in no doubt that he views Cristal and people like her as unscrupulous charlatans, yet Helena, however deluded her beliefs may be, seems happier than any of the other characters. They are all in search of worldly, material goals- wealth, success, fame or sexual fulfilment, yet all are doomed to failure and disappointment, so much so that the film could be subtitled (to borrow a phrase from Samuel Johnson) "The Vanity of Human Wishes".
Helena, however, with her belief in a higher power, seems to raise above the mundane ambitions of the reast of her family, and she is the only character for whom there is a happy ending, when she meets Jonathan, a widower who shares her beliefs. (He believes that his late wife has given her approval from the afterlife to his relationship with Helena). As Woody put it "We need some delusions to keep us going. And the people who successfully delude themselves seem happier than the people who can't".
"You Will Meet..." is not really vintage Woody Allen compared to masterpieces like, say, "Annie Hall" or "Hannah and Her Sisters". It is, however, a well-made drama incorporating some attractive photography of London and some very good acting performances. For me the ones that stood out came from Anthony Hopkins as Alfie, determined to grow old as disgracefully as possible, Gemma Jones as Helena, desperate to find meaning in a world which seems to be falling apart after the dissolution of her long marriage, Josh Brolin as the sleazy Roy, a one-hit wonder desperate for a second hit, and Lucy Punch as Charmaine, a girl who reminded me of several rather dubious British models, "reality" stars and media personalities. (No names mentioned). Today she would probably be a social media "influencer", a profession which did not really exist in 2010. As in most of his best films Woody gives us something to think about while amusing us with the antics of his characters. I preferred this film to the overrated "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and "Match Point", which has a very effective ending but takes a tedious long time before reaching it. 7/10.
The plot centres upon Alfie and Helena, a recently divorced sixty-something couple, their daughter Sally and her American husband Roy. Alfie is a keep-fit fanatic who cannot bear the idea that he is getting older, and has divorced Helena because he hopes to attract a younger woman. Sally and Roy, a novelist, are also having difficulties in their marriage and both are fantasising about having affairs, Sally with Greg, her boss at the art gallery where she works, and Roy with their attractive neighbour Dia. Roy is having difficulties not only in his marriage but also in his writing career, which he attempts to revive by plagiarising an unpublished novel written by a friend who he wrongly believes to have died in a car crash. Alfie eventually marries a young woman named Charmaine who calls herself an actress but is actually a prostitute. Helena, distraught at the collapse of her marriage, begins consulting a fortune teller, Cristal, for spiritual guidance.
Allen said that he made the film because he was "interested in the concept of faith in something". Given his reputation as a thorough-going rationalist, it seems strange for him to have made a film in which fortune-telling and New Age spirituality play an important part. Certainly, Woody leaves us in no doubt that he views Cristal and people like her as unscrupulous charlatans, yet Helena, however deluded her beliefs may be, seems happier than any of the other characters. They are all in search of worldly, material goals- wealth, success, fame or sexual fulfilment, yet all are doomed to failure and disappointment, so much so that the film could be subtitled (to borrow a phrase from Samuel Johnson) "The Vanity of Human Wishes".
Helena, however, with her belief in a higher power, seems to raise above the mundane ambitions of the reast of her family, and she is the only character for whom there is a happy ending, when she meets Jonathan, a widower who shares her beliefs. (He believes that his late wife has given her approval from the afterlife to his relationship with Helena). As Woody put it "We need some delusions to keep us going. And the people who successfully delude themselves seem happier than the people who can't".
"You Will Meet..." is not really vintage Woody Allen compared to masterpieces like, say, "Annie Hall" or "Hannah and Her Sisters". It is, however, a well-made drama incorporating some attractive photography of London and some very good acting performances. For me the ones that stood out came from Anthony Hopkins as Alfie, determined to grow old as disgracefully as possible, Gemma Jones as Helena, desperate to find meaning in a world which seems to be falling apart after the dissolution of her long marriage, Josh Brolin as the sleazy Roy, a one-hit wonder desperate for a second hit, and Lucy Punch as Charmaine, a girl who reminded me of several rather dubious British models, "reality" stars and media personalities. (No names mentioned). Today she would probably be a social media "influencer", a profession which did not really exist in 2010. As in most of his best films Woody gives us something to think about while amusing us with the antics of his characters. I preferred this film to the overrated "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and "Match Point", which has a very effective ending but takes a tedious long time before reaching it. 7/10.