150W: You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger

Short reviews for clear and concise verdicts on a broad range of films...

You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (Dir. Woody Allen/2010)

Squeezed between Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Midnight in Paris are two less-known features. Whatever Works harks back to earlier scripts while You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger is a mish-mash of actors and threads of stories that are, ultimately, forgettable. Alfie (Hopkins) divorces his wife, Helena (Jones), while daughter Sally (Watts) struggles with her own husband, Roy (Brolin). Roy falls for younger-model Dia (Pinto)as Sally herself fantasizes about her boss Greg (Banderas). Allen explains how what weaves the stories together is delusion - faith in the future, belief in reincarnation. Esteemed actors, such as Anthony Hopkins, meant I had faith they’d be more engaging than standard affairs fare and upper-class woe. London fails to add a sense of purpose (as locations do in Manhattan and Midnight in Paris) while the Stacey-Solomon-like charm of the prostitute seems cliché and insulting. Woody Allen can be more nuanced and engaging than this!

Rating: 4/10

Trishna (Michael Winterbottom, 2011)

*This is part of my London Film Festival 2011 coverage. Four Films, Four Days ...

"Can't you do this one thing for me... after all I've done for you..."

Introduction

Michael Winterbottom has now adapted three Thomas Hardy novels. In 1996, Winterbottom directed Jude starring Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet, adapted from Hardy's Jude the Obscure. In 2000, he directed The Claim with a screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce adapting The Mayor of Casterbridge. This is his third venture into Hardy's literature - and it is one of Hardy's most critically-acclaimed pieces - Tess of d'Urbervilles. This was a controversial novel in it's day - 1891 - with lots of censorship and recieving intially mixed-reviews. But Winterbottom is no stranger to controversy as only last year he directed The Killer Inside Me, a film which portrayed scenes of extreme, relentless violence whilst in 2004, his film 9 Songs  courted controversy as it included multiple scenes that included the lead actors having sexual intercourse and scenes of ejaculation. Trishna may not appear controversial but, upon closer inspection, the idea of portraying an unmarried couple in India having passionate-sex within traditional Indian palaces whilst wearing - and taking off - cultural clothes, created to decorate the woman but crucially, to hide the female skin ... it seems we are in controversial territory again. The question is whether it has purpose.

We are in safe hands as our two leads actors are Slumdog Millionnaire's Frieda Pinto and Four Lion's Riz Ahmed. Pinto chosen for her young, innocent look - that demands attention as she becomes deeper and further involved with Ahmed. Ahmed chosen as, akin to his role in Four Lions, he is playing a role that, though distasteful, we appreciate how likable he is, and why Pinto is attracted to him.