YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER
Set in London, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger revolves around four interconnected characters: Helena, a matriarch who takes her advice from a fortune teller; her husband Alfie, who has left Helena to recapture his youth; their daughter Sally, who wants a baby and her own career; and Sally’s husband Roy, a struggling novelist. The film opens on Helena’s first visit to her neighborhood clairvoyant: for glimpses into the future, confidence-building in the wake of her husband’s abandonment, and a glass of “drinky” (that is, scotch). Helena’s faith in her friend, the aptly named Cristal, forms one of the comic through-lines of the film.
While never as magical or mysterious as Allen’s previous flirtations with the occult, as in Mia Farrow’s visits to Chinatown in Alice, the soothsaying nevertheless provides for some moderately successful humor, and shows off the acting talents of British veteran Gemma Jones. The actress plays Helena without condescension. Her undying commitment to her fortune-telling transforms the character from being a joke to the movie’s best asset – as well as the script’s most prevalent theme: “Illusions,” notes a third-person narrator, “work better than medicine.” (Anthony Kaufman)
- Naomi Watts - Sally
- Josh Brolin - Roy
- Gemma Jones - Helena
- Pauline Collins - Cristal
- Antonio Banderas - Greg
- Anthony Hopkins - Alfie
- Freida Pinto - Lalita
- Lucy Punch - Charmaine
- Woody Allen
- Vilmos Zsigmond
- Jay Peck
- Alisa Lepselter
- Jim Clay
- Beatrix Aruna Pasztor
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