You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger Review

Once again, Woody pads the streets of London. Once again, he pulls at the ever-twisting tangle of human relationships with the help of an impressive ensemble. And once again, his theme of choice is how we play the cards we’re dealt (often badly), this time suggesting one’s destiny is more the result of one’s own ambitions, neuroses, passions and — as the title suggests — superstitions, than merely Fate’s fickle finger. Despite lurching at times into eye-roll-deserving stereotype (Lucy Punch’s gauche blonde gold-digger) it’s a gently comic affair which lays on thick irony. Yet, while you’ll easily recognise all the key players — Anthony Hopkins is daddy to Naomi Watts who fancies Antonio Banderas but is married to Josh Brolin who drools over Freida Pinto — there’s little else here that’s truly memorable or resonant.