You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger 2010

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: This love letter to the Reaper and his unknowable timetable is a bracing addition to an erratic, yet indispensable oeuvre. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: In his mid-70s and working mostly abroad, Allen has settled into a new groove. But it's not a deep or enlivening one. His despair has finally become weightless -- a reflexive shrug. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: It's terribly touching, as well as entertaining, to watch everyone's struggles, and instructive to discover that the screwiest people on screen are the only ones who find true happiness. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: It's as if the dour Interiors had been reworked by a more forgiving, generous filmmaker who wants to move beyond stereotypes and discover what he calls the "beautiful and ironic" aspects of life. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Like the worst of late-period Allen, the film recycles character types from his previous work without inventing new reasons to summon them into existence. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: We never get a critical sense from Allen that this movie was worth making in the first place. It's a work of habit more than inspiration. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Woody Allen cranks out another formulaic interweave of romantic crushes, with old jazz on the soundtrack to supply some artificial gaiety. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: There are enough pleasantries and good jests in this new film to make a meal. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: Woody Allen may still be funny, but he's sure not much fun anymore. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Classic Woody -- an ensemble cast of brilliant actors, a timeless story that could be set virtually anywhere and crisp writing and direction that neither lollygags or rushes. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Allen refers to ''a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.'' That's a pretty high-toned way to limit his liability for the lackluster quality of this very slight entry in the canon... Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: To cheer for these rubes would be to cheer for the fool who runs onto the field at a sporting event. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: This is a very minor entry in the writer-director's prodigious canon, despite the major-league cast. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: This kinder, gentler Allen is still clever, still amusing, and the film itself is a confection tempting enough to consider a taste. Yet there is that empty-calorie letdown after it's over. Maybe it's time to book another trip to Spain. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The talented cast fails to gel into a dynamic ensemble: You just see actors going through familiar paces. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Much of the writing is good, and the acting is superb, but the constant wrangling wore me out at times. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: As always, Allen gets some great people to work with him, and gives them some wonderful moments to play. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: The writer-director is in fine if unflashy form, putting a splendid cast through relationship hell in what turns out to be an oddly un-jokey comedy about marital meltdowns. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Is genuine happiness possible, Allen wonders, and can it last? As Charmaine and Cristal suggest, enlightenment comes at a price. And all things considered, 12 bucks seems like a bargain. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: There are few surprises in a film that finds Woody the director (he does not act here) on the autopilot he has increasingly resorted to as he continues to crank out an average of a film a year, as he has over four decades. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: For the most part, everyone struggles through, with at best mixed success. The audience included. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: [Allen's] latest has an empty, soulless feel. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Subpar, shoulder-shrugging effort from Woody Allen. He wastes an intriguing cast on this slight tale. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is every frame a Woody Allen film, but it isn't very much more. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It's a meandering and rather aimless movie that would be considered trite if made by another filmmaker, and yet it has such a family resemblance to other, better Woody Allen movies that it's easy to stick with it and enjoy it. Read more

Peter Schilling, Minneapolis Star Tribune: At once a cynical examination of infidelity and a sweet love story that rewards good people, Stranger is thoroughly entertaining ... and Allen's best film since Crimes and Misdemeanors. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Allen has been criticized for leaving some of the plot lines up in the air and several characters in the lurch. But he seems to be making a point: Neat Hollywood endings are as phony and dangerous as Cristal's ramblings. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: In the autumn of his career, toiling exclusively in Europe, Woody is like an aging cabinet maker still blessed with craft but grown erratic in design. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: None of this breaks new ground, but as is often the case with Allen, the ridiculous absurdities of the characters undermine the habitual pessimistic pose. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Over-written and under-realized, it's Allen in desultory word-processor mode, barely able to muster even his usual amount of resigned cynicism about this crazy ol' life. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: There's plenty of ambiguous intellectual heft lurking behind the curtain of mediocrity - so it's a pity it feels like it was dashed off in a few hours one afternoon. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It won't be a very enchanted evening at You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: By now it's clear Woody Allen doesn't much believe in God, destiny or the notion that life has any larger meaning, a message he tubthumps to increasingly feeble and unpersuasive effect in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Read more

Ella Taylor, Village Voice: At almost 75 years old, Woody Allen still believes we need "the eggs"-the buzz of relationship however crazy or forbidden. So we do, but what a pity that lately, from him, they come parboiled. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's a highbrow romantic farce, without the laughs. Read more