Match Point (2005) Reviews

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

  mstomaso2006-01-08

  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.

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• Ignore the UK paper reviews, this is terrific

  lauriemar2006-01-15

  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.

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• a terrific film

  trevormerrill2006-01-03

  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.

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• In the Realm of Film-Noir

  nycritic2006-01-14

  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.

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

  WriterDave2006-01-09

  ...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.

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