Match Point (2005)
The Cast
Jonathan Rhys Meyers .... Chris Wilton
Matthew Goode .... Tom Hewett
Brian Cox .... Alec Hewett
Penelope Wilton .... Eleanor Hewett
Emily Mortimer .... Chloe Hewett Wilton
Scarlett Johansson .... Nola Rice
Right off the bat, let me state that there is one reason, and one reason only why this movie is Woody Allen's first profitable movie since Hannah and Her Sisters came out in 1986. If you don't know what (or more appropriately, who) that reason is, well you might not be all that familiar with Scarlett Johansson. She's beautiful, talented, has enormous prescence, and you get the feeling that she's just a wee bit dirty. I mean, if the sasquatch-esque Benicio Del Toro can nail her in an elevator, the rest of us painfully average-looking dudes might still have a ghost of a chance. As long as we're a lot older though, since she's got a thing for older men. Wait, this is a Woody Allen movie right? It all comes together!
Written and directed by Allen, Match Point is essentially a tale of infidelity and the conscious choices one makes in deciding to foolishly go down that road. It's also an interesting - if somewhat laborious - dissection of the philosophical differences between luck and hard work and so on. Eventually, the film morphs into something else, though not in a stupid-clichéd-Hollywood twist ending way, in a real-last ditch attempt to salvage something fashion that feels like a plausible solution. Well, more effective than plausible actually, since we're not all crazy in love with Scarlett.
It's a fairly crisp-looking film, however combining that with a British environment tends to give the film a fairly sterile quality. That aspect combined with the lack of any score throughout the movie will definitely test the patience of your average filmgoer. Oh wait, I forgot about the pretentious-sounding opera score that chimes in every once in awhile throughout the film. Kind of annoying. Yeah, I said typed it.
Although the script is somewhat manipulative in making Chloe (Mortimer) out to be annoying and therefore giving Chris (Meyers) justification for some of his actions, at least the acting is fairly decent throughout. At first you're annoyed by Meyers and his overwhelming ... Britishness... but eventually you settle into the movie and see that yes, everyone's pretty much like that. His character changes from a heroic romantic with a somewhat roguish bent to an obsessive adulterer and falling finally into the depths of desperation. It's an excellent performance, only rivalled by that of Our Goddess, Scarlett. Whenever she's onscreen, she romances that camera in such an effortless fashion that it's hard to believe her character would keep screwing up all those auditions, and that the casting directors would even care that she screwed them up.
Even though time passes fairly rapidly throughout the movie, it feels like it moves at a snail's pace. It's a long two hours to sit through just to get to the final half an hour when there's some actual tension being built up. While all these critics are making a big deal out of Woody Allen making a suspense / drama movie, they should've been making a big deal about him not doing what he does best: comedy. I can't recall one moment in this movie that seemed to have an ounce of frivolity in it (minus any part of Brian Cox's performance, since he always seems to be enjoying some sort of private joke) and that just kind of deadens a person inside. Combine that with the subject matter and you've got yourself a very hard-to-love movie.
3 / 5
Previous T5R Reviews of "Match Point"
Andy the Saint
One More Victim