Match Point

Match Point (Director: Woody Allen)

MATCH POINT has been nominated for Original Screenplay (Woody Allen)





Taking away his TV movies and his segment in New York Stories, Woody Allen has written and directed 35 films, with another on the way in 2006. This is "only" the 18th Woody Allen I've seen. Although on the IMDb Melinda and Melinda is shown as a 2004 film, considering it was shown around on the festival circuit, the movie was released in 2005, and so was this. So Woody Allen becomes the 8th and final member of the 2005 2-movie club.

In Allen's 2003 comedy Anything Else, there's a scene where two rough guys take a parking space away from him, and they mock him for saying something about it. In one of the funniest moments I've ever seen in any of his movies, Allen decides to take charge, pulling out a tire iron and smashing their car windows after they leave the vehicle. The surprise of that moment is a lot like seeing "A Woody Allen Film" appear at the end of the trailer for this film, a romantic thriller.

Oh, but not like a romantic thriller in the same tradition as Fatal Attraction or Basic Instinct, although it shares some of their DNA. It begins with former tennis pro Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), who has found a job at a swank London country club to teach unathletic rich people the ins-and-outs of the sport. He meets Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode) while there, and he has a sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer), and some fair sparks fly between Chris and Chloe and they begin a normal romantic relationship.

But normal isn't Chris's style, and when he meets hot American wannabe actress Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson), he starts getting it bad. But, oops, she's Tom's fiancee. Still, stuff happens. Then it seems to be over, and Chris marries Chloe. But later Tom gives Chris the revelation that he's broken up with Nola, marrying a girl he's knocked up on the side, and those old passions burn again. This time, Chris has to balance his newfound family (headed by Alec [Brian Cox] and Eleanor [Penelope Wilton]), who has given him a great job and a dream of a life, and not let it interfere with his secret bang sessions with Nola. Nola begins to be a problem, though, for reasons I won't reveal. And something happens because of it, which I won't reveal.

Just go watch this thing. This is a very good movie, one that I didn't think Allen had in him...at all...but he's always flirted with stories like this, only in the realm of comedy. This time, it's all straight, and it still has some laughs, and he directs a thriller that would make Hitchcock proud. What a fine "return to form..." in a different genre.