Match Point Movie Review

Woody Allen’s latest film, “Match Point,” is a complex ironic romantic thriller set among Britain’s young upper crust.  It is one of his best in recent years among a series of uneven directorial efforts and is clearly the work of a master filmmaker.  Thematically, the film recalls his earlier “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” especially with an allusion established in the film’s opening shot to the role that luck plays in life.  The film is superbly directed, perfectly paced, and Allen evokes wonderful performances from his excellent cast. 

When former tennis pro Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) is hired as a tennis coach at an exclusive London club, he becomes fast friends with his client, Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), who shares his love of opera.  Chris’s impeccable manners and posh accent enable him to assimilate easily into Tom’s well-to-do family and their social milieu, and despite the subtle vibe of calculated upward mobility, he always appears genuinely sincere as do his interests in opera and literature.  Almost immediately, he catches the attention of Tom’s attractive sister, Chloe (Emily Mortimer), who spots her future husband and takes him quickly to bed.  The fly in the ointment arrives with the appearance of Tom’s fiancée, aspiring American actress Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson), who is a sexy, moody, neurotic with a drinking problem.  Chris’s instant erotic attraction to her results in their having an impetuous fling against both their better judgments.  When Tom breaks off his engagement with Nola for other reasons, she disappears abruptly much to Chris’s dismay.  However, when she turns up later unexpectedly, she and Chris reignite their relationship, and the story takes a serious turn in a disastrous direction.

The script is tight, polished, and well written, and the story flows smoothly.  Although pierced with ironic humor, it assumes a serious tone as it explores themes of morality, intimacy, jealousy, neurosis, romantic love, and duplicity that are common to Allen’s films.  The writing is sharp, witty and perceptive. The dialogue is realistic.  And the characters are psychologically believable and mesh perfectly with the English settings. The plot turns resemble a tennis match where often luck as much as strategic thinking and physical prowess determines which player (or character) wins or loses.  While none of the characters are deeply developed, they nevertheless have substance and seem motivated by their desires and inner impulses rather than simply the dictates of the story.  Chris is undoubtedly the most well delineated character, but even with him, we are never completely sure of his motivations. He seems to slip conveniently into marriage with Chloe and then equally facilely into the comfortable, well paying job his father-in-law (Brian Cox cast against type as an amusingly smooth man of means) arranges for him.

Fate enters the picture when Nola reappears in his life.  While he is unable to get his own wife pregnant, Chris has no problem impregnating Nola, and then finds himself trapped in a moral dilemma:  if he does the right thing, he loses his luxurious lifestyle; if he doesn’t do the right thing, he still loses it because Nola will expose him.  So he does the unthinkable, especially for someone in whom we never sense any blind ambition or burning determination that would motivate the cold, calculating, and ruthless course of action he undertakes.  Yet, his homicidal enterprise is consistent with his self-motivated and egocentric character.  As a former tennis pro who left the circuit because he was aware of his limitations, he is equally aware now that he has been extraordinarily fortunate in both his marriage and his job, and he is unwilling to let it all be taken away from him.  Rather than exploring a specific social milieu or group of characters as Allen has done in previous films, the story focuses on making an abstract point about the role of luck in life.  The carefully contrived way in which Chris escapes the consequences of his actions builds slowly and keeps you guessing where it’s going.  Indeed, it has Hitchcockian overtones in its ironic suggestion that success and justice are due entirely to chance. 

Cinematographer Remi Adefarasin does an exemplary job of capturing the upscale locations, sumptuous backdrops, and moody gray skies of London and the English countryside.  Jim Clay’s production design is stylish and sophisticated.  Jill Taylor’s costume design matches the characters’ quirky personalities perfectly.  As usual, Allen’s selection of music to accompany his personal vision of the world is exceptional and captures the film’s emotion and color precisely, including well chosen excerpts of Italian grand opera from Verdi to Rossini and Donizetti that hint at the tragic direction the film will eventually take.

“Match Point” is Allen’s twisted version of Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.”  The film also takes its inspiration visually and/or thematically from work by directors as distinctly different as Ingmar Bergman (“Wild Strawberries”) and Josef Von Sternberg (“American Tragedy”).  The film’s ending is at once shockingly clever and morally repulsive, and perhaps reflects Allen’s personal view of the cynical times in which we live.  The intriguing storyline, solid performances, and Allen’s decision to liberate himself from NYC’s Upper East Side to explore new territory in a completely new setting make this a refreshing, ingenious, and stimulating film.  In a recent interview, Allen stated, “I feel less comfortable when I’m doing dramatic things.  But that’s my real aspiration, my secret dream.  I wish I had been a tragic poet instead of a minter of one-liners.”  In “Match Point,” a cinematic morality tale driven by lust, murder, and fate, he has realized his ambition brilliantly in a surprising and welcome return to form.