Match Point (2005) User Reviews

Clever, polished, stunner with a lot to say about morality and fidelity

[mstomaso · 9/10 · 8 January 2006]

Match Point just joined Brokeback Mountain and Cinderella Man in the top three films for me this year. Like Brokeback Mountain, however, it is almost impossible to write a reasonably intelligent review without writing a spoiler.

I have been a hot and cold Woody Allen watcher, but was only a fan during his comedic phase. So, despite hearing from a few reliable sources that this is Woody's masterpiece, I was skeptical and went in with few expectations. I am glad. Approaching the movie this way allowed it to creep up on me.

The NYC Jewish dialog is gone. The quirky sense of humor is nowhere to be found. the hypersensitivity is missing. Where's Woody? Well, he's in London, but the place and time, despite the opinions of some critics, are largely irrelevant in this film.

There is only one line in this film that indicates its origin - it has something to do with 'intertwined neuroses' and nearly made me laugh.

The first 3/4ths of this film is almost completely taken up with character development, but also contains all of the basics of the inexorable plot that truly unfolds near the end. The characters are all quite likable, and, if you're like me, you will yearn for a happy ending. Watch out! - you've just been hooked and Woody's about to reel you in!

Match Point draws its audience in quietly and slowly at first, defining its territory as a smart, hip, and sophisticated character study early on (in no way unexpected for Mr. Allen), but then it takes an irreversibly sinister turn as one man threatens to bring everybody we have grown to love and respect down with him.

The performances and cinematography in this film are all-around the best I've seen this year. Allen uses a lot of very close-in face shots, and his cast handles it with ease, performing their parts with accuracy and no lack of passion. Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Emily Mortimer, and Scarlett Johanssen are all excellent, and the rest of the cast lends excellent support. I found no fault in the pace or the plot - this is easily Woody's most plot-heavy film, and you can tell that he had a great time putting it together.

The story line of Match Point is powerful, disturbing, and exceedingly clever. Philosophical folks will likely want to talk about it afterward. Some will find it frustrating and others will find it pretentious. Still others will point to Woody's own life and claim that this film is some form of perverse confession. Well, from my perspective, it is simply damn good story-telling.

Highly recommended for adult audiences.

a terrific film

[trevormerrill · 9/10 · 3 January 2006]

Match Point is a cool, classically elegant and concise film that addresses all of the big questions--love, morality, death, fate, chance--without ever seeming heavy or self-conscious. I've never seen a Woody Allen film to match it. As a matter of fact, I can't remember another film of late that I thought was quite this good. From the opening shot, the film draws you in and doesn't let up, moving from shot to shot with a fine sense of rhythm and a narrative drive that builds the viewer's curiosity through a series of unexpected switchbacks. Rhys-Meyers is superb as an ex- professional tennis player from a poor Irish background who has turned social climber. Too proud to accept a favor from his upper class friends without immediately offering to pay it back, he affects an interest in opera and Strindberg. The viewer at once sympathizes with him and winces as he strains to seem refined and self-assured. Allen has put together a superb cast of young actors who bring his near flawless script to life so convincingly that one almost immediately suspends disbelief and becomes absorbed in the story. The shots of London are luxuriant and spacious, never self-indulgent. Few films, novels, or plays manage to form such rich dramatic material out of characters' inner obstacles. A classic piece of drama that reaches toward the likes of Shakespeare and Dostoevksy, every facet--from structure to dialog to editing to sound--is brought off with panache. This is not only Allen at his best but an example of what the cinematic medium is capable of when properly exploited.

Ignore the UK paper reviews, this is terrific

[lauriemar · 9/10 · 15 January 2006]

What a throughly engrossing evening Woody Allen has provided. This film has been, by and large, poorly received by the British critics. I cannot understand why. Yes, it does have the strongest echoes of Crimes and Misdemeanours, but if a director/writer can't borrow from his own product, who can? This isn't funny Allen -- there are few laughs -- but it is an extremely intense and successful serious Allen.

Does Allen's magic transfer to my home city? You bet it does; lovely locations; Notting Hill, the Tate Modern, the "Gherkin" in the City, all look great but are also entirely relevant. Many critics said he didn't have an ear for British dialogue. I simply don't hear that -- it may be a bit stagy at times, but the writing is spare, to the point, and literate. Few trans-Atlantic clunkers.

Yes, there are some silly bits; bits where you wish any half-intelligent Englishman had watched the film and said "Wood, old son, this is cobblers". British detectives don't call themselves "Detective so-and-so". They might be Detective-Sergeant or whatever. The force that polices London is the Metropolitan Police, not the "London Police". Perhaps Allen didn't realise that his main copper, Ulster actor James Nesbitt, sounds a parody of the amusing roles he plays in some widely-seen British Yellow Pages adverts. Little things, so easy to iron out, that detract just a touch from credibility.

Scarlett Johannsson -- what an actress, is she really only 20 or whatever? She packs huge power and stunning looks, if occasionally getting a trifle near Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. Jonathan Rhys Myers does his forlorn sports coach bit, as from Bend It Like Beckham. The solidly Brit supporting cast is entirely believable, even if their effortlessly affluent lifestyle takes a bit of swallowing. Genuine surprises at the end. This is a thoroughly satisfying evening at the movies.

In the Realm of Film-Noir

[nycritic · 10/10 · 14 January 2006]

Would it that this film had been made in the Forties or Fifties when film-noir was at its high point! Woody Allen, one of America's best directors pays his homage to the genre in his latest film about romantic obsession, and if his name weren't in the opening credits you wouldn't know he directed it. Taking a break from filming in the city he loves the most, deleting every trace of the well known neurotic hoots and clicks from his main and supporting British cast, and even removing the trademark reference to his own persona from Jonathan Rhys-Meyers' performance, MATCH POINT becomes a very European film that starts out deceptively as a character study with comedic tones and ever so subtle moves into the darker side of love, echoing THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE and of all films, FATAL ATTRACTION.

A love quadrangle, the oldest plot device, is Allen's focus this time: Chris Wilton (Rhys-Meyers), a retired tennis player, becomes an instructor to Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode). Both find that they have similar interests, such as the love of opera and the works of Dostoyevsky. (They have another similar interest, but I'm getting there). Tom invites Chris for an evening at the opera and introduces him to his family and sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer), who falls for him and who later on signifies familial safety in all forms. Sensing an opportunity to climb the social ladder he starts seeing her just as he meets Nola Rice (Scarlett Johanssen), an aspiring American actress, whom he openly flirts with until he realizes she's Tom's girlfriend, but an outsider in the Wilton household. A clandestine affair between Chris and Nola begins tentative at first -- she advises him against it since it would ruin his chances to become a success and she is engaged to Tom -- but turns deeper. However, a turn of events transpire, taking Nola out of the picture, having Tom marry another girl and Chris marry Chloe, and start to get complicated once Chris tracks Nola down.

Like I said, would it that MATCH POINT would have been filmed 60 years ago because everything in it smolders like the plot elements of the sleekest of noir films. With a deliberate pace that begins taking a sinister shape after the second half, Allen misdirects the audience to the very core. Allen avoids any trace of romantic melodrama, though, and in showing what actually transpires between a couple ensnared in an affair -- their initial bedazzlement, their passion consummated, turning into routine and then its painful decline -- is true to life. Nola, initially seen in white much like Lana Turner in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE seems to be in total control until Allen deftly pulls the rug out of her feet and has her do a slow collapse into her own trap, dressed in darker and darker colors. Chris, at first, so lusts after her it's a question if he can choose her love over social status and this becomes the crux of MATCH POINT: whether the tennis ball falls over the net or not.

There are moments when you think that a director who once had his audience eating out of his hand has gone into autopilot or entered a point of no return. Up until recently, Woody Allen had had even his most hardcore fans put through the ringer with film after film of a disposable nature. With this film, which has a strong connection to CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, he shows that he never was gone. In erasing all references to his staccatto style, he wins over a new audience willing to accept his work with ease and this is at times necessary: like Hitchcock's self-effacing FRENZY, MATCH POINT is an excellent movie showcasing a director in full control of his ability to tell a visual tale. Maybe not up there with the best of his roster but pretty damn close, and that's saying quite a wallop.

"I Don't Care if He's Great, I Just Hope He's Lucky..."

[WriterDave · 9/10 · 9 January 2006]

...and what a great stroke of luck it is to have sat through Woody Allen's latest, "Match Point." Fans of Woody could sense his comeback in the tragedy half of his last effort, "Melinda and Melinda." It was far more compelling than the comedy half, and the philosophical ideas it brought up were the best Woody Allen had given us in a long while. Here with "Match Point" he explores the notion of luck and gives us his best film since....well, since I don't know when. He proves here that when he leaves himself out of the cast, and changes locations (the transition from New York City to London is as flawless as it is invigorating), he can deliver the goods. This film, free of all the typical Allen shtick, and full of noirish twists and surprises, is every bit as good as Robert Altman's "The Player" or "Gosford Park," and like those two films, it's the best kind of return to form you could hope for from a past master.

Chris Wilton (played moderately well by Johnathan Rhys Myers, who comes across as a more handsome Joquin Phoenix) is a failed tennis pro from Ireland who gets a plum job at a snobbish country club in London where he meets up with Tom (an appropriately British Matthew Goode), woos his sister, Chloe (an adorable Emily Mortimer), and has an affair with Tom's flighty fiancée, a struggling American actress named Nola (a ravishing Scarlett Johansson). The film starts off like a more refined version of last year's tawdry affair, "Closer," with Allen exploring the love lives of semi-bored, over-educated filthy rich Brits who when not hopping in and out of each other's beds are hob-nobbing at the opera, the latest art exhibit, or lounging around their lavish estates reading and drinking. There's also a hint of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" in its exploration of the class system and Chris' obsession with infiltrating this exclusive and beguiling society. Thankfully, we're spared all of the weirdness of an atrocity like "Ripley," as Allen keeps it all very clean, sheen, clever and classy.

The film takes some dark turns and has some operatic overtures, spiced with some Dostoevsky references and plenty of pondering on luck. Allen here doesn't seem to be writing off the need for hard work completely, but to achieve a truly privileged life, where one can get away with just about anything, you better have a lot of luck.

A good if not great Woody Allen film

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 23 March 2014]

Along with Interiors(in a way), Match Point seems to be one of Woody Allen's most divisive films and that's understandable. With me, it is good but not great, interesting but Allen has done better(much worse as well). The ending was surprising which wasn't a problem, but it was also much too rushed and ambiguous, at odds with the rest of the pacing of the film. Jonathan Rhys Meyers and the script also didn't come across as consistent to me. Meyers is handsome and does make for a creepy sleaze in some parts of the film but at other points he underplays so much that he comes across as one-note. The script does have a very neat and healthy balance of sporting analogies and psychological questions, beautifully observed in distinctive Woody Allen fashion, unfortunately there are some clumsy moments and some out-of-place mordant humour(if anyone disagrees that's fine, it's just personal taste). The London locations, it's entertaining spotting the familiar ones, look splendid though and the filming reflects the dark, gritty nature of the story very effectively. The score is haunting, giving an ominous tone to scenes in need of it, and opera enthusiasts will love the healthy dose of opera excerpts throughout(though you wished they had a grander approach). The story even with the clear influence of Allen's 1989 masterpiece Crimes and Misdemeanours(a much better film) is an absorbing one, despite much of it being a slow-burner. Especially in the second half which takes a more violent turn without feeling mismatched. The gritty atmosphere worked in the story's favour as did the neatly interwoven plot points and story layers(the romance did have some resonating moments), and the characters as ever with Allen had a fair amount of realism though Chris was not very easy often to root for. Allen directs with control and assurance, though he's at his best in comedy-dramas like a lot of his films from the late 70s all the way through to the early 90s. With the acting, while Rhys Meyers didn't always convince, the largely British do some fine work, especially Matthew Goode and Brian Cox- James Nesbitt has been much better though- and Scarlett Johnansson in sultry, compassionate mode is superbly cast. Overall, interesting film and a good one(at its best even very good), but not great, Woody Allen has done better. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Quite possibly... (IMO)

[evo8mr · 10/10 · 10 January 2006]

The best Woody Allen movie in about 15 years. I would've said that a couple of months back about 'Melinda and Melinda' but this is a far better cry than Melinda and Melinda. Don't get me wrong, I think Melinda and Melinda is a good movie, but 'Match' is more fulfilling.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays Chris Wilton, a former tennis pro turned tennis teacher who is of Irish lower class. He is shocked to find out he got a job as a tennis instructor in a high class country club. There he meets Tom Hewett played by Matthew Goode in a very strong performance. What Rhys Meyers does is unbelievable, he showcases what he is really made of in this movie. Chris sounds like a simple person but what Rhys Meyers did was make him a person of complexity. From the moments of solitude when he's in the same room as his family, the way he grieves for what he's doing and what he is about to do is very convincing.

Emily Mortimer plays Chloe Hewett Wilton, Chris' wife and Tom's sister. Also what Mortimer does is also outstanding, even though she isn't given much to make Chloe a person rather than a persona, Mortimer makes Chloe a person with ease. In my opinion, I think Emily Mortimer does a better job of playing her character than Kate Winslet would've done had she been attached. She has the right notes and chemistry with Jonathan Rhys Meyers to make their marriage and romance very believable, and what Mortimer does in the moments of denial and solitude she is given, she makes Chloe a complete person. This performance should make her a star.

Scarlett Johansson gives, in my opinion, maybe her 2nd best performance in this movie. Johansson is OUTSTANDING as Nola Rice, a struggling actress. Johansson shows us her range to play this character, the epitome of tragic beauty, Johansson combines elements of sexuality, desire, nostalgia, in one being. Though this performance may not be as good as her performance in Lost in Translation, its still good enough to get her an Academy Award Nomination.

Match Point starts off as a drama and works its way into being a very tense psychological thriller, and Woody Allen shows he is still in top form by trying something daring, and pulling it off. This movie is a silent masterpiece.

Not so much as I expected

[sadako19 · 7/10 · 27 April 2006]

I had many good expectations on this movie, but I ended up a bit disappointed when I saw it. I thought it was going to be a masterpiece,but it didn't seem so to me. The most important thing for this story are the characters, and the problem is that the performances, in my opinion, are not powerful enough. I don't mean that Meyers and Johansson are bad actors, but I think that I may have enjoyed the movie better if it had a different cast. There are other movies which have the same themes as this one and are definitely better, as for instance, "The talented Mr. Ripley", in which the actors, for me, are outstanding, whereas in "Match Point", they can't awake almost any feelings in me. Besides, the dialogues are not very original,they are a little artificial. Anyway, the movie is worth seeing: it makes you think about the consequences of your choices, and that is always an issue which is important to approach.

Simply damn good story-telling

[Sir_AmirSyarif · 8/10 · 25 April 2020]

'Match Point' is gripping and entertaining as well as well-made - the structure, the storytelling, the confidence of style are all impeccably crafted. The performances and cinematography in this film are all-around great. Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Emily Mortimer, and Scarlett Johansson are all excellent, and the rest of the cast lends fantastic support. This is easily Woody Allen's most plot-heavy film, and you can tell that he had a great time putting it together. Simply damn good story-telling.

Polished, yes... Noir, sort of.... A masterpiece? far from it.

[gimmeDV · 6/10 · 18 May 2006]

So, I heard about Match Point awhile ago from Golden Globes buzz, and decided to go out and rent it. I've never seen a Woody Allen film before in my life, so I wouldn't find myself being biased just because of the name behind the camera... and because of that, I can say that while the film was OK, it's nowhere near perfect.

The only thing I will really say about this film, without giving too much away is that what keeps this film from being truly great, is character and plot development. When I watched it, I felt that everything moved along a little bit too cleanly, and a little bit too much like a movie. Maybe that was the point... maybe it wasn't supposed to mimic life as much as I would have liked it to but, with the exception of the last 30 minutes of the film (which did keep me wondering what would happen... and held my attention), everything's cleanly cut, cleanly shot, and is the same married man has affair story... needs to/wants to end it....and not much more.

For a more interesting twist on this particular plot, and the consequences of it, see the masterful Diane Lane in "unfaithful"... it's more raw, and hits the viewer's core a bit stronger than this piece, which might have worked better if released about 15-20 years ago.

engrossing tale of adultery and obsession

[Buddy-51 · 8/10 · 12 January 2006]

In "Match Point," Woody Allen, caught in one of his more "serious" moods, takes a simple tale about marital infidelity and turns it into something complex and fascinating. Although he leaves a trail of clues implying that this is to be another of his homages to Fyodor Dostoevsky, the film really turns out to be Allen's own version of Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy" (albeit set in England, perhaps to throw us off the scent). The parallels between the two works are not perfect, of course - in fact they often seem to be intentionally inverted - but they are close enough to make us wonder if Allen did, indeed, do it all on purpose.

Jonathan Rhys-Meyers plays Chris Wilton, a down-on-his-luck social climber who marries into wealth but longs for the passion he finds with another woman. Chris is a professional tennis player who decides to leave the circuit when he realizes he hasn't the skill to compete with the real pros. Taking a job as an instructor at a posh, highly exclusive tennis club, Chris finds himself wining and dining with the rich and famous after one of his pupils, Tom Hewett, takes a liking to him and introduces Chris to his snooty but accepting family. Chris begins to date Tom's warmhearted sister, Chloe, but he is really smitten by an aspiring American actress, Nola, who just happens to be Tom's fiancé. Chris makes the mistake of marrying Chloe before Tom and Nola call off their engagement and go their separate ways. The fact that Nola is free but he is not doesn't deter Chris from pursing an affair with the woman who provides all the passion and excitement his loving but boring wife cannot. But Chris soon discovers that carrying on an affair can result in a life filled with secrecy, lies, guilt and self-loathing. And when the going gets to be just a bit too much for our hero to handle…well, there's always that "final solution" lurking in the wings, as many an earlier adulterer has discovered to his everlasting regret.

"Match Point" starts off very slowly and seems at first as if it will be just another tale of adultery and unrequited love. Yet, Allen really knows how to draw us into Chris' predicament, so that, by about halfway into the film, we feel as enmeshed in his seemingly irreconcilable dilemma as he himself is. Torn between the wealth and position he has as Chloe's husband and the love he feels for the relatively impoverished Nola, Chris is frozen into a state of paralyzing indecisiveness, his every waking moment a tormenting hell of fear and gathering dread as he keeps waiting in breathless anticipation for that other shoe to drop. It isn't until the "other woman" becomes more of a burden than his clinging wife that Chris can finally launch into action. This turnabout in the screenplay might strike many in the audience as arbitrary and implausible and there is certainly a case to be made for that. But if you can go with the flow, you will be delighted by all the little ironies Allen throws at us in the final stages of the story, which help to underline the filmmaker's thesis that, for all the efforts we make to control our lives, The Fickle Finger of Fate - or in this case a tennis ball precariously balancing on the top of a net trying to figure out which way to fall - always has the final word.

Allen has written dialogue that is incisive, intelligent and literate, and the performances he's drawn from the likes of Rhys-Meyers, Goode, Emily Mortimer, Scarlett Johannson and Penelope Wilton are superb down to the tiniest detail. Allen keeps his camera tightly focused on his characters, rarely pulling away from them much beyond a middle distance, keeping us firmly locked in the near-claustrophobic drama. Here is a movie that demands patience at the beginning but that really sneaks up on you the longer you watch it.

Guided by the hands of a master, "Match Point" is one of Allen's finest films in years.

A Murderous Mismatch

[Chrysanthepop · 3 January 2009]

Unlike most of his films which are usually romance or comedy or both, 'Match Point' is a suspenseful character-driven thriller. Woody Allen adopts a very Hitchcockian style in 'Match Point'. It isn't like anything he's made before. His fascination with England is interesting and you do see that he makes a lot of use of the English sights (though some may think the showing of monuments etc are clichéd). His other fascination seems to be actress Scarlett Johanssen whom he has already cast in his more recent three films. Though I have never found her convincing as an actress, here she actually does a fine job but the film clearly belongs Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Many seem to complain about his accent or his restraint but, in my opinion, he does a wonderful job playing a complex and difficult character. An adorable and vivacious Emily Mortimer shines. She is a scene stealer and it is good to finally see her in a role that exposes her talent. It's also good to see Brian Cox in something different for a change and Penelope Wilton has always been a dependable actress. Allen does a superb job in building the suspense by following the lead character and exposing his thoughts. The film is said to be loosely based on Dosteyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' and there are several references to his works. Opera music is cleverly used in the story as the characters are shown to be deeply drawn towards it. Lastly, 'Match Point' is another one of Allen's winners. It's impressive that at this age, and after so many duds, he could make a film that looks so modern and feels fresh.

Solid enough; delivers where it counts...

[risingsun40 · 6/10 · 5 May 2009]

One of Woody Allen's most polarizing films, so far as I can tell, there seems to be very little neutral feeling on Match Point: viewers either hail it as a late-career gem, or deride it as an absolutely miscast, poorly-scripted farce. It's neither, really; what the film demonstrates best is that anything 'new' in Woody Allen films is essentially the Emperor's new clothes.

The novelty in Match Point is that the director has found a new playpen to cast his sophisticated characters and their discussions of high art and snobby social, um, concerns (in this case, London). Chris, an Irish semi-pro tennis player, earns the trust of a rich upper-class English family and marries into it. Then there's his jealous mistress, Scarlett Johansson, a struggling American actress, on the side. Their emotional dramas are played out through visits to the opera and art gallery, in which in one line a character is marveling at the intensity of an artist's brush-strokes and in the next are talking about having an affair or getting knocked up. It all sounds rather pretentious on paper, but here Allen's talent (as a writer and behind the lens) takes over and makes it all somehow believable, even compelling for a good hour of its runtime.

A common complaint with the film is that the attempts at British speak are risible and stilted. I'm not English, myself, so I'm not sure how accurate these criticisms are, but there are patches of dialog that are either clumsy or too obvious: Allen seems obsessed with tossing foreshadowing into his character's dialog, a trick that lends the production a feeling as artificial as the mechanics of his storyline. The whole tennis subplot is weakly written as well as executed, and could do with being excised. In terms of acting, Jonathan Rhys Meyers severely underplays his calculated lead character, appearing generally disinterested and sleepwalking through his part, and Scarlett Johansson is very good as his love interest, with a screen presence that makes the relationship between the two work - on that note, it's doubtful whether there's been a director as obsessed with his blonde star since Hitchcock. The supporting turns from Emily Mortimer, Matthew Goode and Brian Cox are all convincing, and the direction is generally good.

The problem with Match Point is that there's a nagging evidence of pretension and patchiness that prevents the film from being entirely absorbing even when it's at its best - not usually a recommendable combination. In addition, Allen takes a serious wrong turn in the last third or so of his drama. Depending how you see it, what unfolds is either a plot twist or an aspiration for the sort of high drama you get in operas (get it? because the characters all love the arts so much!), yet it casts a 'wtf' shadow over the whole film. And then proceedings get weirder still, via ghosts hallucinations, and more clunky dialog... I felt cheated.

Misgivings aside, Match Point winds up a competent film with all of Woody Allen's expected trademarks, and is worth seeing for Scarlett Johansson's performance. Despite being muddled, it provides - despite its high-art focus - fairly decent, trashy entertainment.

Masterpiece? Please!

[fdbjr · 4/10 · 27 January 2006]

The first part of 'Match Point', about the drift of the hero into a passionate but adulterous affair, is pretty good. But even in these scenes there are problems. For example, there is a love making scene in a field in the rain. I guess it is supposed to resonate with unbridled passion - but all I could think of is how uncomfortable the lovers would be, in the cold English rain and damp prickly hay. I generally enjoy tasteful erotic scenes, but the concept is preposterous.

However, this is small potatoes compared to the utter idiocy of the criminal plot and subsequent police work. The hero steals a skeet gun belonging to his father-in-law to murder his mistress by staging a robbery. He kills a neighbor, and then his girlfriend, the notion being that she surprised the thief. Both times the gun makes a polite little pop. Did Allen or any of the critics who praised this movie ever consider what sort of sound a skeet rifle ACTUALLY makes? When fired indoors? The entire building would shake. The reverbations would be heard for blocks around. The murderer would be found out in two minutes. The whole concept is utter nonsense. Hitchcock never overlooked such realistic details in his movies.

But infinitely worse is the police work - the typical contempt of a New York intellectual for the solid common sense of everyday life. One of the detectives sees through the scheme. But he gives up when a drug addict is discovered with an item of jewelry from the theft. Allen actually believes the police are not going to wonder how such a derelict came to possess an expensive skeet rifle? Or what happened to it? Or will not run routine ballistic tests on the rifles the father owns, the hero's motive being known to them? That they will close out a double homicide on one flimsy, possibly coincidental bit of evidence? Do be serious. There is more thoughtfulness in the first five minutes of any 'Law and Order' episode than this.

This movie is a little better than Allen's recent stuff - the drift into adultery is really good. But the plot twist is just plain stupid. The critics are rooting so hard for Allen that they overlook the sheer dumbness of the plot. But it is indeed dumb - so dumb that it wreaks havoc with the movie.

Allen discovers new terrain and creates his most ambitious film in years

[newjerseymoviefanrob · 10/10 · 25 January 2006]

It's been said, but for a while one of the best filmmakers of the 20th century has been staggering with mediocre films not nearly up to his potential. But finally Allen has returned to the game with a subtle but perfectly done thriller which allows him to reinvent himself and discover new terrain like a brand new filmmaker.

Match Point offers a simple but powerful message that luck plays a huge part in everyday life which to a major extent is true. Luck plays a huge part in Chris Wiltons life when he gets a job as a tennis trainer at a fancy club and meets Tom, the son of a rich business man. Tom invites Chris to an opera where he meets Chloe, the sister of Tom. From there, Chris and Chloe start to date and Chris, a small and unwealthy man, gets introduced to high society life. He's offered a high stakes job, a personal driver, etc, just to bring happiness into the life of Chloe.

Chris is perfectly content until he meets the beautiful Nola, played by Scarlett Johansson. Nola is everything Chloe is not, exciting, extremely sexy, and unwealthy, which leads to Chris's dilemma. Nola and Chris begin an affair that leads to even more once Tom dumps Nola giving Chris the opportunity to live out all his sexual desires with a beautiful woman, but the high life of Chloe overpowers the little ambitions and lack of money. Match Point is about luck but also about choices made in life for personal enjoyment. Is it better to be rich and not completely satisfied or poor and happy? As a failure, Chris finds luck with Chloe's rich family willing to set him up with whatever he desires.

The film is very similar to Woody's 1989 masterpiece Crimes and Misdemeanors and it takes similar turns. Chris gets himself in the situation where he must choose from a small life with a woman he is satisfied and turned on by or choose a high society life with a woman he barely loves and lacks attraction to. I won't tell you what he chooses, but I will tell you the dilemma leads Allen to his most satisfying, tense, engaging film in over a decade.

It's great to see Allen take such a simple premise, used several times, and put all his trademark qualities into it mixed with a discovery of new terrain. Match Point is an engaging, entertaining film that gives you a taste of the high life and shows you what it can lead a man to. 10-10 for this excellent film by the great Woody Allen. Let's hope this is a revelation for Allen returning him to morality film-making.

Masterpiece

[gpmovie · 10/10 · 27 May 2005]

I was lucky enough to see this film at the Cannes Film Festival recently where it screened out of competition. Being a Woody Allen fan, I was just hoping the film would be OK and not a disaster like some of his most recent films. Boy, was I surprised! MATCH POINT is easily his best film since CRIMES AND MISDEMEANOURS and once of his best ever. In his first foray out of Manhattan and into London, you would have thought he had lived there all his life. This film is a masterpiece and is a sure bet to win critical acclaim and many awards. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is a revelation and finally lands a role of a lifetime as a young man who enters the world of the wealthy elite and would do anything to stay there. Scarlett Johansson has never looked as sultry and sexy as she does here playing the cool femme fatale. The film is beautifully structured and the performances by all and sundry are exemplary. Emily Mortimer and Brian Cox stand out among the supporting cast. The film has so many layers and so many unexpected twists that this is obviously the work of a genius director in full flight.

What can I say. The best way to see this film is without knowing too much about it as I did and you will come away from it declaring that Woody Allen is still alive and kicking and still able to make a masterpiece even after all these years.

Woody: an actor's dream come true

[ijha92 · 28 December 2005]

Over the years, Allen has shown himself as superlative as a director of actors. He gives them scope to explore the wide range of human frailty. This is true in his outright comedies(Annie Hall, Manhattan) his "problem plays" (Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors) and here, in his great, dark drama MATCH POINT. What scene would any of you like to choose for discussion? Is Allen's perception and keen ear for human weakness evident in almost all of them? Witness, to chose but one example in a hundred, the scene in which Nola bitterly reviews her miserable youth and her mother's alcoholism whilst downing far too much wine? Yes, part of it indeed is Johanssen's innate talent, but there is here -as before with Keaton, with Caine, with Farrow, with Wiest- the steady hand of a master who knows how to get the best performances out of his actors. Whew, what a tour de force.

Luckily for us, what might be Woody's swan song is a lean and powerful effort

[february2nd · 7/10 · 13 January 2006]

(Note: I added "may contain spoilers" because I briefly describe how the plot is set up, but I don't discuss it's resolution.)

Even though I'd heard beforehand that this movie was reminiscent of "Crimes and Misdemeanors," it still didn't quite prepare me for all of its twisting plot. Yet it's actually a very simple story. A man falls in love with two women at the same time. The one he's most passionate about he can't have, so he ends up marrying his 2nd choice. It doesn't hurt that his lesser love is part of a very rich family, and that he'll never have to worry about money again for the rest of his life as long as her father sees that his daughter is happy with him. But he can't deny his passions, and starts up an affair with the girl he loves more. The affair takes on a life of it's own until one day it gets serious enough that he is forced to make a choice: give up a life of chauffeurs, mansions and a wife he describes as "sweet," or forsaking his deepest passion forever for a safe and comfortable existence. What he decides is something I won't give away.

This is lean and powerful Allen. There is no amusing nebbish at the core of this one; all the pain and uncertainty that "the Woody character" would usually deflect so deftly with humor is stripped away here, and what's left is a more satisfying display of raw emotion from the two gifted leads, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Scarlett Johansson. Equally as satisfying is that Allen's theme about the roll of luck in our existences ended up being as strong as any of the performances. For good or for bad, you really leave the theater questioning just how lucky you or the characters you've just spent two hours with really are. Maybe the only thing everyone who can appreciate this film can agree on is how fortunate we are that Woody Allen (who turned 70 this past December) can still put together a small masterpiece like this.

The Turning Point Of Woody Allen

[don_agu · 10/10 · 10 December 2005]

A Noir with English accents. A modern, ancient tale with super stars of the future and a score of crackling vinyl original recordings of timeless arias. A sixtysomething filmmaker with the flair of an impertinent newcomer. A masterpiece. Engrossing, entertaining, elegant, wicked. The meeting between the splendorous Scarlett Johanssen and the breathtaking Jonathan Rhys-Meyers at the ping pong table is right out "A Place In The Sun" - Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift at the pool table - the feeling is James Cain and Patricia Highsmith but the result is unique, bold, enthralling. Allen's British dialogues are refreshingly startling and I don't intend to spoil the pleasure of its perverse surprises by hinting at any of them. Just let me say that if you love cinema, rush to see it.

Film Noir

[boblipton · 7/10 · 1 January 2006]

I'm always glad to see a new Woody Allen film and this is no exception. Here he returns to the dark, chaotic world he investigated in CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS -- his best straight drama, I believe -- and which he explored comically in BULLETS OVER Broadway -- his best comedy and you may disagree with both choices: a world without a god to impose a moral order which, tragically, destroys the men and women who inhabit it. A world of Film Noir that takes place across the river from London's Parliament where man's laws are made where he gives us a variation of AN American TRAGEDY. Yes, it can happen there.

There is a lot less Bergman influence in this movie. Instead the influences are visual touches: Hitchcock, Truffaut and others jostle each other in this script, the effective story of how a former tennis player cold-bloodedly marries into a wealthy English family -- "They've got nothing but money" he says trenchantly at one point -- and winds up murdering his pregnant mistress, the former fiancée of his brother-in-law. The script is brilliantly done and, even as he struggles to hide his crime, he wants himself caught. That desire to pay for his crime is the only thing that endears him to the audience, but it was enough to put the New York audience -- including me -- who sat through the showing on the first day of the new year in a similar mood. Would he be caught, which would give the universe some moral shape, or would he succeed in his quest for freedom and wealth? The script is topnotch, the cast performs admirably and the background of operatic music adds to the melodramatic tensions.

If the movie has any weakness, it is purely a comparative one: Woody Allen's New York films capture New York with subtlety. Wandering the streets of Manhattan, he can finds spots of beauty that would escape the casual eye: a scrap of paper blowing in the wind on 9th Street, the warehouse where the floats for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade are stored, the cramped interior of a basement store in Chinatown. His views of London are more conventional in this movie: a river view of Parliament, the brick galleries of a London tennis club, the wood-and-leather library of a stately country home.

Perhaps, in time, Mr. Allen's perspective may bring us images of London that the natives have overlooked, but I doubt it. While this movie and his next, scheduled movie, also shot in London are worthwhile experiments, Woody Allen based in London is as unthinkable as Woody Allen in Hollywood. Come home, please, Woody. We need each other.

a serious channeling of Dostoyevsky via infidelity drama by Woody Allen

[Quinoa1984 · 10/10 · 7 January 2006]

Match Point is my favorite American-directed film of 2005. Woody Allen, coming off of hitting his stride again with Melinda and Melinda, goes back to his darker, dramatic side, and makes a story that may seem a little familiar, though not to his discredit. Woody borrows (some may say steal) elements from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, one of the great novels of the 19th century (some may say ever written, I have read his work though not this yet), and transfuses it with subject matter that he's more than well acquainted with- the relationship drama. But un-like Love and Death, which was Allen's way of parodying the work of the author, this time he takes the work seriously, plunging the audience into the mind, conflicts, and outcome of the protagonist. That the performances by the actors involved, particularly the three main leads are top notch (Jonathan Rhys-Myers, Emily Mortimer, and Scarlett Johnasson in one of her best) brings full blood and flesh to Woody's strong skeleton of a film.

The story starts slow. Chris Wilton (Rhys-Myers) is an Irishman in London, a tennis instructor who could've gone pro. He meets Chloe (Mortimer) through her brother Tom (Matthew Goode) and they soon become close, close enough for marriage. Basically, he marries into an upper-class family where he's coaxed into becoming a businessman for the family. But during this he also meets Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson), a struggling American actress, who's engaged to Tom. One thing leads to another, yada-yada, and Chris winds up in a big pickle as he's in a love-triangle between Chloe and Nola. Allen handles this dilemma with a powerful precision, by building up the relationships Chris has with each girl, and how there is not unbelievability in the set-ups. Nola is sensible and intelligent, if not altogether, while Chloe is caring and decent, if maybe too picture perfect for Chris. The dynamics are set-up so well, it leaves room for ample drama and suspense.

Allen, who has also been a playwright for decades, knows the way people interact like so, and how not to rush the situations and use tact with delicate scenes. There is also the element of Opera, which Chris sees with Chloe's family often, and the element of tennis. The analogies that both produce could possibly be very trite or cliché. It's not to say a couple of scenes are even cliché (ladies, you know you've seen quite a few movies with passionate kissing in the rain), but I even bought into those scenes. There is perhaps a certain manipulation that goes into these kinds of love stories, how much the audience can go with the inner conflict of our main character. But as the protagonist goes into a frame of mind that most may not be able to identify with, we're still with him all the way. And, perhaps, it's also because I love a good, solid infidelity story. Allen has here not only his best film in several years, but also likely his most suspenseful one.

Those who may not go with the sympathies &/or empathy for the characters may not like the film as much. Some have even criticized minor gripes with the film, like Rhys-Myers's unconvincing accent, or the over-usage of London's most famous landmarks. As an American, perhaps, I didn't mind certain things like these. When a filmmaker has this much trust in his script (and Woody, pushing 70 in making this, is not amateur), and has the right cast, it just takes off from there. To say I was on the edge of my seat through a good chunk of the third act is an under-statement and, at the core, was even cathartic in a way. It's the kind of film I would love to tell more people about, even if they think Woody is washed up after years of arguably less-than-great pictures. For some it might not even 'feel' like a Woody Allen movie, that at times it's a little 'slick'. It still is, however the work of an artist reaching further into his grab-bag with younger, exciting actors, and an interesting use of a (finally) new city.

Recycling

[Galina_movie_fan · 6/10 · 27 March 2006]

Match Point was one of very few movies from last year that I really wanted to see and could not wait for it to open. High praise from both the critics and the audience alike only contributed to my impatience. What did I get? Allen recycled one of his own earlier masterpieces, used only a drama part of it and created a good-looking movie with myriads of references to the works of literature and cinema that had told the same story much better than he did this time. What is fascinating, the earlier masterpiece that I've mentioned above is twenty minutes shorter than "Match Point" but it had said so much more with such power that Allen himself was not able to recreate. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is not Martin Landau and Scarlet Johansson is not Angelica Huston. It is nothing wrong to borrow from himself but nothing original or compelling came from "Match Point". I enjoyed his silly "Scoop" and his dramedic "Melinda & Melinda" much better than his almost universally proclaimed as masterpiece "Match Point". I said once and I am repeating that Allen makes good, very good and excellent films. Let's say that I prefer his combination of drama and comedy to pure drama. There have been many great dramas but "Crimes and Misdemeanors" is beyond great, it is unique.

****A spoiler...sort of:******

More than once I've seen the same scene in the movies lately - the main character reads a Dostoyevsky's novel in an opening scene - gives you a very good idea what to expect by the end.

Some new territory for Woody Allen

[1001Films · 8/10 · 7 June 2005]

This film at first doesn't seem like a typical Woody Allen film but at the end you know it's one and why. While the story and theme is familiar, Mr Allen brings new perspective and avoids clichés. He goes to the themes he explored in "Crimes and Misdemeanors" but without the Ingmar Bergman homage. Instead it's more fun and exciting to watch. I guess the young hot cast and new location doesn't seem like the usual Woody Allen film, even though he used young hot talents before. This one belongs to his best films which is good news to his fans. The cast is excellent but the supporting cast outshines the leads somehow. Matthew Goode made a strong impression and sure to become a star in the near future. I'm glad Woody Allen changed locations and used some of the best British actors for a change. I guess people who will read this comment, will already know about the plot, so I will avoid it. I watched the film at Cannes where it was well received by critics and the audience.

("The heart wants what it wants"--Allen) A Progression of Chris' Heart

[kindredparadox · 7/10 · 21 April 2021]

As luck is on Chris' (Meyers) side, a sweet looking Chloe (Mortimer) falls in love with him, a woman with a complete package, with money, with a complete family, even a good job upgrade for him, etc. Nonetheless "ungrateful" Chris still falls for a different kind of girl, a hot sexy Nora (Johansson) and begin an affair

It happens to us. Such is an ordinary event of life journey, an affair with a tempting hot woman, who is making a man's blood boiled (even though now Chris has all, has been given an American dream, including a sweet stabile cute woman). And the story of Match Point is also that of an ordinary progression, from point A to B, then from B to C. Even all the characters besides the main character, are conveniently providing this linear story, with perfect lines bordering suspension of disbelief. Why then, a story like this, still engaging? Well because it is. We are simple men and women, and when a story relates to us in such a true sounding with part of our life, we enjoy it, we want to know what next, and how it solved. Then we look for some little things to takeaway from a film (eg Match Point). Story maker sometimes allegedly added this little things after a story writing is finished, or sometimes it's the idea that started it all

Match Point tells a different story than Allen's usual film, because it's almost a normal movie, where all the characters speak just almost normal. Much more normally, Allen's film, well you know, Allen's style; Where every characters' line going towards possible comic. Anyway, arriving near Match Point ending, Chris will be facing difficult choices.

Woody Allen has really, really, really lost it (mild spoilers)

[shezan · 1/10 · 5 December 2005]

Well. And what a waste of 8 euros "Match Point" turned out to be. As it happens, Woody Allen couldn't get financing in the US, or at least without strings attached, so he's decided to go and milk the BBC instead. Which means, in effect, that he recycled a story he'd written for a New York setting straight into a London setting, without any attempt at any significant rewrite. And "written" is a loose term. "An American Tragedy" meets "A Place In The Sun" meets "Room at the Top" meets "The Talented Mr. Ripley" meets (but let's not get carried away) "Le Rouge et le Noir." Ambitious poor boy courts aristocratic rich girl then gets torn between rich in-laws and poor girlfriend from the wrong side of the tracks. If you think this is too generic a summary, that's the whole point: "Match Point" is nothing but generic.

It's not just that Jonathan Rhys Meyers' young Irish tennis pro speaks like a 1950s BBC presenter without a hint of an explanation of how it came to him; it's that when he meets an old tennis acquaintance in the street, or when he bursts into a rage, his accent doesn't change. (Everybody in the movie speaks RP, except for the Scot-and-Cockney-coppers-as-comic-relief, and the property agent right at the beginning, probably because he was initially written as yammering in broad Brooklynese.) It's not just that sugar-daddy's country house is totally unconvincing if he's old money (wall-to-wall carpeting?), or his accent is if he's Alan Sugar. It's not just that somehow, I can't imagine a London copper calling someone a "schmuck", or a Sloane Ranger, however arty, mention that a couple is made in heaven because "their neuroses match". Or another Sloane boasting of getting good invitations because she was "born in Belgravia." Or that the country house set would welcome their daughter marrying a tennis instructor. Or that the cocktail-swilling son of the house, all public-school accent and Jeeves-and-Woosterish quips, could get away with calling even the hired help "Hey, Irish", meaning it to be affectionate. (Although the initial meeting between said son, played on automatic pilot by Matthew Goode, and JRM as his tennis coach at the Kensington Queen's Club, plays like nothing more than a gay pickup, all "Oh, you like opera? My father gives a tonne of money to Covent Garden, can I take you to Traviata tomorrow night?" for entirely too long for his sister to look like anything but a beard for the rest of the movie.) Or that even Richard Branson could just snap his fingers and said tennis pro becomes magically a business wizard. Or that a would-be American actress with only a commercial under her belt would audition for a part at the Royal Court.

It's that nobody has a real backstory, or even edges. (Scarlett Johansson does wonders with what little she's given. JRM is pretty - when he panics, you can't quite tell whether it's because he's afraid of handling a gun, or because he's just read the rest of the screenplay.) As for London, Allen tries for the postcard effect he perfected in "Manhattan" (complete with self-reference to the River Café shot), but he entirely misses the texture of the city: there isn't a single London scene set in a house, for instance, it's all flats (it's summer but Allen's London practically has no trees); people shop in Mayfair (at Aspreys and Ralph Lauren, natch), not Sloane Street; and when JRM, early in the movie, takes his posh totty for a romantic walk, it's to watch the changing of the guard at Buck House.

To be honest, there is a lovely plot twist right in the last five minutes. It's contrived, yes, but very clever. But it's not worth waiting two hours for.

And apparently, the Beeb has done it again: Allen's next movie, also starring Johansson, is also set in London. Chaps, this is your licence fee money that's being wasted.

It probably won't surprise anyone that the same French critics who found Existentialist genius in Jerry Lewis simply loved the movie, ranking it as high as Annie Hall in Allen's oeuvre. Le Monde called in "pungent social criticism with...a deeply-felt clinical study of class relations conditioning men's [*] behaviour and destiny in the...deterministic social system." And you were wondering why we had those riots.

[*] Nah, this isn't a feminist take - Le Monde's critics have no qualms about using "men" when they mean "human."