Review of Match Point (2005) by Monsieur R — 16 Feb 2011

About being lucky, or at least this is what the film blatantly throws in our face in the beginning of it. But it isn't about being lucky at all... it is about making choices.

When former tennis pro Chris Wilton begins a relationship with shy heiress Chloe Hewett after befriending her brother Tom, he finds his social and financial status vastly improved. However, once he has an affair with Tom's ex-lover, American actress Nola Rice, he realizes that his new, luxurious lifestyle may be threatened.

And stop that annoying opera soundtrack from Enrico Caruso, or whomever it is. It was pretty good to set the tone of the movie, but it got pretty tiresome hearing it all the way through the film. Pure Woody Allen to inject that wailing man here and there.

But we see that choices like, who do you want to stay with or leave. Who do you really love. Who are you? or do you really know? This is what matters. But young in love, young and foolish. Stupid is as stupid does. Somebody pass me a cheeseburger, please.

All these questions and more come into this finely done film by Allen, but the meetings in art museums have to stop, ok? Allen keeps making films about art museums and the encounters within them.

Next, this is a film that should have been titled: Be Careful What You Wish.

Washed up tennis pro from Scotland finds living in England more than this match socially. A girl, a daddy's girl, rich beyond the pale captures our poor fellow, marries him and then can't have his children. The pressure from her is unreal.

Meanwhile, our little tennis bum gets infatuated with Johannson from Colorado. An equally confused girl that gets a child by jumping into bed with our married tennis bum.

This is all too stupid or shall I say typical depraved plot by Allen.

While I give it a 80%, I have to say, Good Luck watching this one, it is well photographed and acted, but is all about choice, not luck.

NOTES about the film:

1 Allen has claimed that Match Point "arguably may be the best film that I've made. This is strictly accidental, it just happened to come out right. You know, I try to make them all good, but some come out and some don't. With this one everything seemed to come out right. The actors fell in, the photography fell in and the story clicked. I caught a lot of breaks".

2 The film received generally strong reviews from critics.

3 The film was screened out of competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

4 Match Point broke a long streak of box office flops for Allen, with a worldwide gross of $85,306,374.

5 Crimes and Misdemeanors is the main source of inspiration for Match Point, it also alludes to some of Allen's other films. The tennis scenes here are reminiscent of the earlier tennis scenes in Annie Hall, and the final shot involving Chris gazes out the window into a vacant sky is a direct quotation of the final shot from Interiors, where Diane Keaton, Mary Beth Hurt, and Kristin Griffith do the same.

6 The film's soundtrack consists almost entirely of pre-World War I 78 rpm recordings of opera arias sung by Italian tenor Enrico Caruso.

CAST.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Chris Wilton.

Scarlett Johansson as Nola Rice.

Emily Mortimer as Chloe Hewett Wilton.

Matthew Goode as Tom Hewett.

Brian Cox as Alec Hewett.

Penelope Wilton as Eleanor Hewett.

Ewen Bremner as Inspector Dowd.

James Nesbitt as Detective Banner.

Margaret Tyzack as Nicole Eastby.

Colin Salmon as Ian.