** 1/2

There are two people who come to my mind first when I think of You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, Woody Allen and Frieda Pinto. These are the two people that made me want to watch the movie - Allen because of his great body of work, and Freida because I could never get the hype around the actress.
 
For me, appearing at Red Carpet extravaganzas in designer labels and posing for shutterbugs isn’t qualification enough but since the paparazzi had made such a big deal out of her, I thought maybe there was something special about her that I missed out in Slumdog Millioanaire.

Now Allen disappoints, and I think I was right about Freida Pinto.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger can at best be summed up as the tale of unhappily married couples, who seek refuge in different people.

Amongst these include Helena (Gemma Jones) who falls in love with a psychic after her husband Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) abandons her for a prostitute. Her daughter Sally (Naomi Watts) too is battling a failed marriage, as her writer husband is busy flirting with Freida Pinto.

Sally on the other hand is in love with her boss played by Antonio Banderas who too is in a disintegrating marriage.

Now there are too many stories in one story, and too much confusion and too many complications. There are too many dialogues and long, difficult to endure conversations.
 
My favourite part of the film is the beginning that opens with a Shakespearean quote. But beyond that infidelity as a theme is treated in a run-of- the-mill manner in the film.

Woody Allen seems to be losing his Midas touch. In the past few years, the only film that looked a wee bit like his work was Vicky Christina Barcelona.