Match Point
Match Point is not a typical Woody Allen film. For this movie, Allen has ditched his native New York for glitzy London, abandoned his beloved jazz for high brow opera and left his usual comedy style behind for a Hitchcock inspired suspense thriller. With his years of experience in filmmaking, Allen makes all the transitions seem so easy.
Match Point is a movie about passion, temptation and obsession, but above all, it is about luck. Two main characters Chris (played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) and Nola (played by Scarlett Johansson) are both opportunists. They start at the same place, but end up at the opposite sides of luck. Nola is a struggling American actress, engaged to Tom Hewett from a wealthy London family. By teaching Tom tennis, Chris and Tom become friends and he is introduced to both Nola and Tom’s sister, Chloe (played by Emily Mortimer). From the beginning, there is a strong physical attraction between Chris and Nola, but while they toy with each other, their main aim is the Hewett fortune. In the end, one is welcomed into the family and has a meteoric rise in society while the other is rejected and lives a tragic life.
Allen’s comedies have always been famous for their witty dialogue. Although Match Point is a dark drama, his dialogue is still superb and dominates the movie. It is ironic when we hear Tom and Chloe dismiss the role luck plays in people’s successes since they are clearly the benefactors of luck to be born into a rich family. Allen does not waste any conversations in this movie and some of the small talks in the first half of the movie play a pivotal role in the second half. The movie makes a sinister turn half way through and plays out more like Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder. I have to admit that Allen is no less a master than Hitchcock in creating suspense and I had no idea where his story was leading to while watching it.
Woody Allen being Woody Allen, he cannot help putting some of his personal touches in this movie. Allen has always been fascinated by Dostoyevsky’s book Crime and Punishment and I don’t think it is a coincidence for Chris to be reading this specific book in his spare time. Sometimes this entire movie feels like Allen’s attempt at a modern day Crime and Punishment. The movie is also not completely void of Allen’s sense of humor, especially when those bumbling London detectives try to solve the murder case near the end of the movie. However it is kind of tacky when Allen uses the ghosts to question the murderer’s moral ground. It is a good speech about the seductiveness of money and power and how easily one can become ruthless in pursuit of both, but I only wish that Allen could have invented some better scenarios for the monologue.
The movie’s British cast is not up to par with Allen’s usual New York cronies. Rhys-Meyers is way too young and inexperienced to handle a complicated character such as Chris. He is so obvious as a gold digger and social climber that it is hard to believe Chloe’s parents do not see through him. He walks with a swagger in the movie that he may have hoped to add maturity to his character, but it only makes him look even more childish. Ever since Allen parted ways with Mia Farrow in 1992, he has been looking for a constant muse in his movies. It seems that he has found one in Johansson. This top heavy beauty has been the talk of the town ever since Lost in Translation. Her pouty lips have replaced Angelina Jolie’s voluptuous ones as the most demanded by plastic surgery patients. She may be the current It girl in Hollywood, but I have always found her performances cold on screen. Working with a cineaste like Allen, she has finally incorporated her coldness into a character that is icy from time to time. Still Johansson is not a femme fatale in the same breadth as all of Hitchcock’s favorite blondes such as Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly; on the other hand, I wish that Allen could have made Mortimer’s Chloe a meatier role. Mortimer is a talented actress who has been trapped in all the cute and sweet roles. Anyone who has seen her in Lovely & Amazing knows there is much more to this actress than meets the eye.
I hope this movie is not the beginning of Allen’s self-imposed exile into European film community. Allen has been shunned by the American audience ever since his affair with Farrow and her adopted daughter Soon Yi became public in 1992. His movies after 1992 have been consistently good, but none of them can be called a masterpiece. To me, the reason that the public has stayed away from his movie is because Woody Allen’s movies in the past all closely related to his personal experience and it is hard to draw the line between his life and the fictional life on screen, but that is also why his old movies are so great. But after the scandal, Allen has been making movies as an outsider and his movies are his observations and musings on our society. He has ceased to be a participant in the stories even when he stars in those movies. I would love for Allen to come back to his homeland and open his heart to his audience once more.
Match Point is a movie about passion, temptation and obsession, but above all, it is about luck. Two main characters Chris (played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) and Nola (played by Scarlett Johansson) are both opportunists. They start at the same place, but end up at the opposite sides of luck. Nola is a struggling American actress, engaged to Tom Hewett from a wealthy London family. By teaching Tom tennis, Chris and Tom become friends and he is introduced to both Nola and Tom’s sister, Chloe (played by Emily Mortimer). From the beginning, there is a strong physical attraction between Chris and Nola, but while they toy with each other, their main aim is the Hewett fortune. In the end, one is welcomed into the family and has a meteoric rise in society while the other is rejected and lives a tragic life.
Allen’s comedies have always been famous for their witty dialogue. Although Match Point is a dark drama, his dialogue is still superb and dominates the movie. It is ironic when we hear Tom and Chloe dismiss the role luck plays in people’s successes since they are clearly the benefactors of luck to be born into a rich family. Allen does not waste any conversations in this movie and some of the small talks in the first half of the movie play a pivotal role in the second half. The movie makes a sinister turn half way through and plays out more like Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder. I have to admit that Allen is no less a master than Hitchcock in creating suspense and I had no idea where his story was leading to while watching it.
Woody Allen being Woody Allen, he cannot help putting some of his personal touches in this movie. Allen has always been fascinated by Dostoyevsky’s book Crime and Punishment and I don’t think it is a coincidence for Chris to be reading this specific book in his spare time. Sometimes this entire movie feels like Allen’s attempt at a modern day Crime and Punishment. The movie is also not completely void of Allen’s sense of humor, especially when those bumbling London detectives try to solve the murder case near the end of the movie. However it is kind of tacky when Allen uses the ghosts to question the murderer’s moral ground. It is a good speech about the seductiveness of money and power and how easily one can become ruthless in pursuit of both, but I only wish that Allen could have invented some better scenarios for the monologue.
The movie’s British cast is not up to par with Allen’s usual New York cronies. Rhys-Meyers is way too young and inexperienced to handle a complicated character such as Chris. He is so obvious as a gold digger and social climber that it is hard to believe Chloe’s parents do not see through him. He walks with a swagger in the movie that he may have hoped to add maturity to his character, but it only makes him look even more childish. Ever since Allen parted ways with Mia Farrow in 1992, he has been looking for a constant muse in his movies. It seems that he has found one in Johansson. This top heavy beauty has been the talk of the town ever since Lost in Translation. Her pouty lips have replaced Angelina Jolie’s voluptuous ones as the most demanded by plastic surgery patients. She may be the current It girl in Hollywood, but I have always found her performances cold on screen. Working with a cineaste like Allen, she has finally incorporated her coldness into a character that is icy from time to time. Still Johansson is not a femme fatale in the same breadth as all of Hitchcock’s favorite blondes such as Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly; on the other hand, I wish that Allen could have made Mortimer’s Chloe a meatier role. Mortimer is a talented actress who has been trapped in all the cute and sweet roles. Anyone who has seen her in Lovely & Amazing knows there is much more to this actress than meets the eye.
I hope this movie is not the beginning of Allen’s self-imposed exile into European film community. Allen has been shunned by the American audience ever since his affair with Farrow and her adopted daughter Soon Yi became public in 1992. His movies after 1992 have been consistently good, but none of them can be called a masterpiece. To me, the reason that the public has stayed away from his movie is because Woody Allen’s movies in the past all closely related to his personal experience and it is hard to draw the line between his life and the fictional life on screen, but that is also why his old movies are so great. But after the scandal, Allen has been making movies as an outsider and his movies are his observations and musings on our society. He has ceased to be a participant in the stories even when he stars in those movies. I would love for Allen to come back to his homeland and open his heart to his audience once more.
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