You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

Wry ensemble film begins by paraphrasing Shakespeare with the quote, “Life was full of sound and fury, and in the end signified nothing.” With a meek start like that, the director has all but guaranteed a trivial movie to follow.  Woody Allen’s umpteenth reflection on cheating and relationships follows a pair of married couples.  As in most Woody Allen comedies there are multiple characters and storylines.  In this case, the script feels unfocused and mundane.  An exciting development regarding Josh Brolin’s character, a struggling writer, materializes about two-thirds of the way through.  Without giving anything away, the situation concerns his new book and an acquaintance who is in a coma.  But just when the action starts to get interesting, the film literally stops, robbed of a conclusion. Somewhere there is a wonderful little movie buried in this script. If Allen had focused on taking this idea to a clever conclusion, the story might have been a bit more engaging. Unfortunately as it stands, many plot threads are left dangling. True to it’s opening quote, we’re left with nothing.