= 5 stars

Starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Emily Mortimer, Scarlett Johansson
Directed by Woody Allen

Match Point is the Woody Allen film I’d been waiting years for. Not his best since Annie Hall, but since Crimes and Misdemeanors his films have consisted largely of screwball romantic comedies and crime capers (Mighty Aphrodite, Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Manhattan Murder Mystery) that while decent on their own, are ultimately replaceable and muddled with one another, peopled by interchangeable characters, situations, and dialogue. Allen’s career has been a long struggle between comedy and tragedy – he’s fascinated by both many of his films alternate between the two (Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Melinda and Melinda), almost self-consciously afraid that a too-somber film will scare people away, and a too-funny one will bring the wrong people back for more. So with Match Point, it’s refreshing to see Allen that do away with much of the comedic meandering and give drama to us straight.

Match Point is set in London where Chris (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a tennis instructor, falls in favor with a well-off London family. Soon engaged the nice and sweet Chloe (Emily Mortimer), he’s handed a cushy office job with all the perks. His brother-in-law is dating a failed American actress (Scarlett Johansson) who stupidly, Chris initiates an affair with. Events reaches a breaking point where Chris must choose between leaving his wife and all the trappings of the upper-class by “doing the right thing.”

Along the way there are heavy ruminations on the nature of luck. In that, the typical belief systems most people ascribe to are God, fate, and faith in your own ability to create and control your life. In the absence of the three, there is luck, in that things just happen and whether you benefit or lose is ultimately a matter of chance. Allen suggests there can be key moments in our lives that rely far more on luck than we would like to believe. Even through the example of this film, however, I tend to disagree. Chris deliberately initiates his affair with Nola and avoids confessing to his wife even when given the chance. At no point did I think a person in his situation would be forced to take a gun into their hands against their own will. So to say luck had anything to do with this situation being created is mostly wrong. What ultimately proves the “luck” factor is whether or Chris gets caught, and that is better left to a viewing of the film.

Another theme that Allen seems to wonder about is a quirk of our human condition in that people never seem satisfied with what they get, and always want something just beyond our reach. The last concept thrown into the mix seems to be about the distance between married couples, where Chris commits an infidelity in an effort to see if he/she gets caught. If he doesn’t, well, that must mean the his wife doesn’t know him as well as she is supposed to, as if it’s her responsibility to keep him in line. All this infidelity against a backdrop of extreme wealth and privilege.

There’s a Freudian interpretation to the proceedings, in that Chris must choose between a Madonna and whore, implying that he cannot proceed forward to a domestic, married life without first eliminating his lustful desires. This situation is basely symbolized by whom he’s able to impregnate. It’s a common male dilemma, in that many men’s fear of marriage is based in the idea they will be shacked with adult responsibilities, locked in a domestic setting, and put on the clock to produce children. Chris literally faces this situation; notice how he struggles with his new claustrophobic work duties, fearing to be late at one minute, then ignoring work with a fling at Nola’s.

Allen provides some masterful director choices, most notably his careful framing of events. I love one scene where Nola and Chris argue, and the evasive Chris during some pointed questioning has his head out of the frame. Another perfect moment comes when Chris and his wife run into Nola in a museum, and Nola’s back divides the frame between Chris on the right and his wife. Lastly, I’m certain there was some thought put into the nature of the artwork hanging on the walls during some key moments: when Chris is pointedly asked, “Are you having an affair?” he stands next to a painting of a black chicken.

I do have some minor complaints with the film, one that the Marty Landau plot-line of Crimes and Misdemeanors could essentially be seen as a rough draft of many moments in Match Point, right down to the unanswered phone call and crazy-lover-telling-the-wife routine. That’s not to say Match Point is a remake, but it takes a bit of the freshness off the plot. Second, it’s a bit sad that Chris is so walled-off from the people around him in that we don’t get a palpable sense of guilt or deliberation, other than the facial tics and worry on his face. He only has one real conversation where he tries to justify his actions and that’s to nobody of consequence, and so the confession has little weight. The end result is that we can’t believe this is a situation of a normal person pushed to extreme situations by circumstance (as in Crimes in Misdemeanors). In Match Point, the feeling is that Chris is a bit of a socio-path from the very beginning, and people might get the impression that the tale is merely a warning to not marry quickly to shifty, quiet blokes from poor backgrounds, which I’m not sure is what Allen intended. In short, Chris is not a sympathetic character, and as such the ending is almost a convoluted argument against the death penalty, in that having made his choice, he’s stuck in a glass prison of his own creation.

At the end of Crimes and Misdemeanors, Judah (Marty Landau) approaches Woody Allen with the plot to a murder mystery movie. It seems Woody Allen has finally made Judah’s film.

Next Woody Allen Movie: Scoop
Previous Woody Allen Movie: Melinda And Melinda

IMDB: Match Point
Wikipedia: Match Point
Rotten Tomatoes: Match Point 79%

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Posted In: 5 Star Movies, Movies 5 stars, Emily Mortimer, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Woody Allen

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