You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

I went yesterday to see You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Poster of "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger"

Yes, I came out of the theater with a bit of a depression, and since I was alone, I could not let it out. Depressed after a Woody Allen movie?

Read a few comments from Rotten Tomatoes:

At this point, it’s all just variations on a theme, and Stranger is a minor but pleasant variation

I was so depressed after leaving the theater, I had to crawl to the nearest video store and rent a Marx Brothers movie in order to revive myself.

But the next one really tells everything.

In You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, the only people who retain their happy visions are the most deluded. It’s probably a good metaphor for 2010.

Yeah, folks. It’s not a splendid Allen movie, but a minor one. It’s a cynical, very cynical movie, like none I have seen from him. Gone is the romanticism of his explorations of life and of his characters.

You have the usual characters, and Woody seems not to have finished taking inspiration from them: some are neurotic (the old wife), some passive (the old husband who spent life with business success but little happiness at home, Anthony Hopkins); and the not-so-young woman who still dreams (Naomi Watts) but is anchored to a mediocre writer.

Events in life will bring them to change, but only some understand the ill fate which falls upon them. The woman will fall in love of the dark stranger (Antonio Banderas) but will not fall in his arms for a tiny, micro joke of destiny. Her ex-husband will succeed at happiness seducing a splendid girl through unethical and illegal behavior. The seduced girl gives away her fiancée because, well, because she is delusional.

The old man, after one delusional affaire will have to face his dire straits, alone. His ex wife, on the other hand, and her stranger (not dark) are the only who finish into a quasi stupefied happiness, while living off their ultimate delusion.

So, from his 75 years, what is Woody telling us? Beware: life is full of tiny, micro events which will change our life, but you may -or may not- be aware of them. Your chance at happiness is a function of many variables which happen to oscillate randomly. However, Allen adds, those who are delusional will have some chance at feeling happy… but are they?

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About Antonio Vantaggiato

Professor, web2.0 enthusiast, and didactic chef.
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One Response to You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

  1. absolutely true, minimal things and decision can become major changes of direciton and destiny in life…

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