You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

Prefaced by the apt Macbeth quote of "…a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing," writer-director Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is a serviceable, but inconsequential, romantic dramedy that boasts a potluck mix of actors both British (Gemma Jones, Anthony Hopkins) and otherwise (Josh Brolin, Frieda Pinto, Antonio Banderas), a bland London location, and meandering storylines that revolve around one family as they struggle to find meaning in their lives. In his arc as a family patriarch who rejects his wife's (and his own) inevitable aging, Hopkins, portraying a desperate playboy, is grounded and thoughtful, despite the cheap Viagra jokes. Brolin, whose story receives the film's most satisfying resolution, overcomes the raw chauvinism and incessant vanity of his failed novelist with his immense charm, though Pinto is underused as his young and pliable artistic muse. A third-act scene between Naomi Watts and Banderas strikes an odd chord, while Jones's spiritual awakening is unfortunately played for laughs amid the many domestic dramas that populate the drawn-out movie. Allen's trademark elements of neuroticism and self-absorption are present, but, as in so many of his latter-day productions, he seems content to rehash themes and dilute previously explored character types into more than caricatures, but less than people.