MATCH POINT

Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
DreamWorks Pictures
Grade: B+
Directed by: Woody Allen
Written by: Woody Allen
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Emily
Mortimer, Matthew Goode, Brian Cox, Penelope Wilton
Screened at: MGM, NYC, 11/29/05

In a break from most of his signature works, writer-director
Woody Allen chucks New York Urban Anomie with his first
feature filmed outside the U.S. His "Match Point" asks the
question: Can a T&A man find contentment, even happiness,
with a woman whose immediate family are G&T people? (As
you'll discover by listening to the prescient dialogue, G&T
means Gin-and-Tonic, and we all know what T&A means.)

"Match Point" deals with the significance of luck. Allen posits
the theory that many of us think we're in control of our destinies,
but as he shows us, foreshadowing a twist that no one in the
audience will see coming, control freaks should loosen up.
We're not particularly in control of our destinies, our passions,
and justice is not only something that evokes the quote, "Justice
delayed, is justice denied," but is spotty as well. Maybe the
police don't want to admit this to the general public, but a lot of
crimes, perhaps most, are committed by people who get away
scot-free while others are unlucky enough to be caught time and
again. The Greeks and the Elizabethans believed that murder
puts the universe out of whack and that punishment rights us
once again.

While "Match Point" is closer to Allen's "Crimes and
Misdemeanors"–about a married man who is desperate to cut
off an adulterous relationship–but in playing heavy drama
against high comedy, he makes that film a tough act to follow.
"Match Point" may have mordant humor but has only one of two
real laughs in what is otherwise a study of class distinctions, the
boredom of the rich, and sexual passion.

The story centers on Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) a
poor Irish guy who has given up playing professional tennis
because he thinks he will never be good enough to rise to the
top. Taking a job as a tennis coach for the British elite, he gives
pointers to Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), who is as sincerely
interested in opera as is Chris. Chris meets the man's sister,
Chloe Hewett (Emily Mortimer), a most eligible bachelorette who
falls for the polite, good looking fellow, but Chris has eyes more
for Tom fiancé, Nola Rice, a ravishing albeit unemployed
Colorado actress looking unsuccessfully for work in the London
theater circuit.

Chris and Chloe marry while Tom breaks off his engagement to
Nola, a scenario that virtually evokes the old European concept
that handsome men marry for money but seek sexual fulfillment
elsewhere. It takes little time for Chris to immerse himself into
women trouble, as his wife wants a baby, but Nola wants that
certain something else from the man. How these scenarios play
out is the motif of the film.

The acting is as impeccable as Remi Adefarasin's lensing is
gorgeous. Since there's nothing really new under the sun but
there are ways of reinvigorating older works of literary art, Allen
conjures up Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy," about a
killer who ran out of luck when strapped into the electric chair,
and Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment," made into movie in
1935, 1958 and 1958–about a law student who becomes
involved in murder and consequent feelings of guilt.

Wisely chucking his overdone New York-nebbish theme in favor
of updating at least three classic works of literature, Allen has
given us a picture that could make many in the audience
congratulate themselves for spotting analogies with Dostoevsky,
Dreiser, and his own "Crimes and Misdemeanors." Socrates's
quote, that it's better not to have been born, is trotted out, with a
soundtrack exclusively of operas by the likes of Verdi, Donizetti
and Rossini to punctuate the film's melodramatic touches.
Scarlett Johansson intrigues as a hottie who at first acts the part
of a mysterious woman but whose neuroses (constantly drinking
and smoking) build to a fever pitch in her lust for Chris.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers does well aping the aura of the rich,
gaining the confidence of his rich father-in-law, Alec Hewett
(Brian Cox) and Alec's gin-and-tonic loving wife Eleanor
(Penelope Wilton). The one give-away as to Chris's lumpen
past occurs in a restaurant where Chris is dining with his fiancé
and friends but forgoes the blini and caviar in favor of roast
chicken.

Rated R. 124 minutes © 2005 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com Member: NY Film Critics Online