Match Point Review
by [email protected] (dnb AT dca DOT net)December 12th, 2005
MATCH POINT
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2005 David N. Butterworth
**1/2 (out of ****)
If, with his latest film "Match Point," Woody Allen was deliberately trying to make a decidedly un-Woody Allen movie then to that end he has succeeded.
He doesn't appear in it, for one thing, which helps (I've had nightmare visions for months now of him kissing Scarlett Johansson and/or Emily Mortimer full on the lips in spittle-sharing close-up). And the film is shot entirely in England, a first for the Woodman.
The dialogue, too, doesn't sound typically Allen-esque; his characters certainly aren't as neurotic or annoying as usual--Johansson's Nola Rice plays the sole American, a struggling actress from Boulder, Colorado. Also missing is the crackling Dixieland jazz on the soundtrack: in "Match Point" we're afforded the good graces of grand opera in keeping with the classical tastes of its lead males, former tennis pro Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) and Tom Hewett, the son of a wealthy industrialist Chris winds up coaching and later befriending (Tom is played by British actor Matthew Goode).
In fact, the only thing that reminds us, briefly and initially, that we're in Woody Allen terrain are the stark black-and-white titles that credit his key players alphabetically--Brian Cox and Penelope Wilton (currently on display as Mrs. Gardiner in the fabulous "Pride & Prejudice") round out the first-billed thespians. They play Tom's well- to-do parents.
These (mostly) missing attributes aside the film is nevertheless interesting and eventful and nicely acted, especially by Rhys-Meyers and Johansson as the femme fatale Chris falls for (Nola's engaged to Tom and Chris is seeing Tom's sister Chloë so things are a little tricky; there's a nice scene in a pub in which a tipsy Nola tells an infatuated Chris not to mess things up by making a pass at her which, of course, he does otherwise there'd be no story).
But that's not enough for Allen. He wants to explore newer territory still.
And that, in its third act, is when "Match Point" serves its first double fault. Not that Allen's screenplay falls flat on its face, necessarily. But it trips and stumbles and never fully recovers. The events and motivations that play out in the closing sequences feel unrealistic and out of proportion. In short, they don't support certain character traits that the veteran writer/director has so skillfully developed up until that point. I was disappointed. I felt letdown. I had been enjoying the film for what it was and here it was all of a sudden trying to be something else, late in the game, almost after the fact. It didn't really work for me.
That said, there's much to enjoy in "Match Point": English locales, rational and centered dialogue, and a singular lack of jazz music--and on-screen Woody--for starters. And it boasts some worthwhile performances for its meaty entrée. It's only too bad that, with so many desserts to finish up on, writer/director Allen decided to go with the just variety.
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David N. Butterworth
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