Cannes Review Round-Up: Woody Allen's "You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger"

Welcome to the second installment of the hopefully many-part series detailing the "results" of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. Up next is Woody Allen's latest star-studded ensemble piece, You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger. Even though Nicole Kidman left the project, dashing the first possible chance for her to work with BFF Naomi Watts, it is the latest from Woody, which good or bad, usually means interesting. Continuing his European phase after Match Point, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, now Allen's in London. Judging from the first handful of reviews, the response has been nice, but nothing spectacular. The Hollywood Reporter calls the film "A serviceable Woody Allen comedy that trifles with its characters rather than engaging with them." Vanity Fair has a slightly different take; content-wise, that is. Julian Sancton says the film "is perhaps the most somber screening at Cannes." However, Sancton goes on to say that, like the film's press conference, the film was "the funniest and darkest at Cannes." Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman is less kind right from the get go; his article/post is titled "Mike Leigh scores and Woody Allen bores". The review doesn't let up, with such comments as, "The atrociously titled You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is one of Woody Allen’s “fables” — which is practically code, at this point, for the flavorless, dry- cookie thing that results when he writes and directs a comedy on autopilot," and, "There should, by now, be an award for worst actor forced to impersonate Woody Allen in a Woody Allen film. I would probably give the award to Kenneth Branagh in Celebrity (with Scarlett Johansson as a close runner-up in Scoop). But if Josh Brolin, in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, doesn’t quite enter the make-it-stop stratosphere of whiny fumbling stuttering embarrassment, he’s still got to be the least likely actor yet to play a faux-Woody neurotic intellectual." Ouch.

[current] Cannes Verdict: A routine Woody Allen comedy/drama that is by no means essential viewing.