In watching the film that is the subject of this review, a number of sports cliches came to mind. You know, like “You’ll get them next time”, “You can’t win them all”, ‘Even a .300 hitter makes an out 7 out of t0 times.” For the sake of cliche completeness, you can also thrown in “Nobody’s perfect”. Well these cliches are all certainly applicable to the film that is the subject of today’s review, Woody Allen’s latest film, “You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger”. Woody, as my dad would tell me when I struck out in Little League, better luck next time.

Film 

As much as I have loved Woody Allen’s films, I can’t really say that I enjoyed this one much at all. The film certainly has an excellent cast and it is shot in London, so it at least has that going for it although, given how little of London you see in the film, it just as well could have been shot in New York or Philadelphia.

The film mainly resolves around Alfie and Helena, played by Anthony Hopkins and Gemma Jones and their daughter Sally and her husband Roy, played by Naomi Watts and Josh Brolin. Alfie and Helena have been married for 40 years but Alfie, afraid of growing old, decides to leave Helena to regain his youth. He tried to out and socialize with a much younger crowd and even marries a tall and well built and blonde much younger prostitute, Charmaine (Lucy Punch) to make him feel young and manly. This all throws Helena into a tailspin with her attempting suicide and then, seeking the help of a psychic.

Their daughter Sally and her husband are every bit as troubled. Roy, who graduated medical school, never worked as a doctor and instead, penned a successful first book. However, despite many attempts, has not been able to follow-up that initial success and is out of work while trying to write this next book. Sally on the other hand, is working low paying jobs in the London art gallery scene. Roy and Sally are short of cash and are dependent on Helena to help pay their bills. Their relationship is further complicated by the fact that she wants kids but they really can’t afford to have one.

All 4 make a series of mistakes throughout the film that only serve to further complicate their lives. Sounds like a ton of fodder for a good film right? Well, you would think so but not with this film anyway. My problem with the film is that it just has this mailed it in feel. All of the various subplots running through the film are not really resolved, with everything left up in the air at the end of the film. There is no resolution for the characters in the film. Perhaps that is the overarching meaning behind the film, that life is a jumbled mess and often left without resolution. Perhaps, but this is a film after all.

While the various groups of characters are inter-related, you are not really drawn into their worlds. You move back and forth between them quickly, not really getting to know them all that well. To top it off, the film is utterly predictable. You just know Alfie’s second marriage would end in disaster and that Roy was making a big mistake looking so longingly out his bedroom window at the woman in red across the way.

The film quotes Shakespeare a couple times, “all sound and fury signifying nothing”. Well, this film really is really short on sound and fury and in the end, really signifies nothing, other than a brief and open ended look into the lives of a few people, who we really have little of the way of sympathy or empathy for. Hopefully, Woody Allen’s next film will be a good bit better. Rated as a rental only.

Video 

All in all, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger looks pretty good. With the exception of a couple of scenes, the film has a natural looking color palette. Blacks and good and stable throughout but not all that deep and certainly, not inky at all. The film also is a bit on the soft side and not exactly reference in terms of detail. Film grain is abundant throughout the film and well preserved. fans of that film like look in the home will be very pleased with the overall look of the film. There was some noise in some of the darker areas of the film but that was really only noticeable if you sit very close to your screen. It was not really noticeable from a normal viewing distance. All in all, this is a fine encode and appears to be truthful to the look of the film as it appeared in theaters. As such, it should please fans of the film.

Audio 

I was not expecting much in the way of a sophisticated sound design for this film as that is just not what you get with one of Woody Allen’s films. You are at times lucky just to get stereo. This is the first film on Blu-ray that I can recall seeing that has a DTS HD Master Audio 3.0 track. To say that this film is front heavy would be an understatement given that it has no surround tracks at all. Frankly, the film would have probably sounded just as good in stereo if your speakers image well and would have sounded just as good with plain jane Dolby Digital. I am not really sure that the inclusion of a lossless 3.0 track really added that much to the sound experience. The overall fidelity of the recorded sound was good not great and certainly nothing to write home about. In this regard, the audio is consistent with all the other Woody Allen films.

Special Features 

This one is easy as there no extras included other than previews and the trailer for the film. The release is BD-Live enabled.

Final Thoughts 

You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger is certainly not one of Woody Allen’s better films and a bit if a disappointment. Rated as a rental only.