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Back Shelf Beauties
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Match Point By now, you have heard all of the praise for writer/director Woody Allen's daring move to make Match Point in a way he never made any other movie before. He left the comfortable confines of Manhattan, flew across the Atlantic Ocean, and set the film in upper crust England, without a lovelorn nebbish to be found anywhere in the movie. It's something I had hoped he would do, and it has paid off in ways that may bring Woody another Oscar nomination. (That's right, Willie doesn't have any silly jokes or mocking tone in this review. I'm playing it straight for Woody. And Scarlett. Sweet, sweet Scarlett.) Jonathan Rhys-Meyers stars as Chris - a British professional tennis player who never quite had the success he always desired, something most of us can understand. He was known as a competitive and challenging adversary, but never seemed to get that lucky break or advantageous bounce to beat the best in the sport like Andre Agassi. Now retired, Chris has taken a job teaching tennis at a posh country club, where he forms a friendship with a member, Tom (Matthew Goode), and starts to have a romantic interest in Tom's sister, Chloe (Emily Mortimer). He quickly becomes part of an upper crust world of privilege and money he has chased his entire life, but it might all come crashing down as Chris develops an infatuation for Tom's sexy American fiancée, Nola (Scarlett "You must always include the word sexy when describing her" Johansson. I almost made it an entire paragraph without a joke. A new record). Will Chris betray Tom and Chloe by pursuing this temptation? Match Point is one of Allen's best movies in years because he takes the audience to places we didn't think were possible when the movie begins. Instead of a light-hearted fluffy piece about love and potential adultery, Allen leads Chris down a much darker, shocking and thrilling path, which is amazing to watch as Allen fills the movie with tension, painful yearning and desperation. He crafts a story where Nola and Chris are the outsiders in a magical world they are willing to do anything to stay a part of, and slowly draws us in deeper and deeper as the situation becomes much more complicated. Allen brilliantly sets a falsely calm tone, which is washed away as we learn more about each character and each one starts to express his or her desires (much like any movie skewering the false face of the mannered class). Match Point doesn't have classic Allen dialogue, but it is more about the people involved in the story, which is just as rewarding. Rhys-Meyers is fantastic as his desire and desperation become palpable to the audience. Sure, pretending to be overcome by desire while meeting Scarlett Johansson is not too hard for any man, but he's good at the other stuff, too. He makes us understand Chris's thought patterns and decisions (even if they aren't stable or logical) by telling us about the rough and tumble life the character has led with the pain still in his face no matter how much he wants to deny it, and shows how he is overwhelmed to be part of this world he always wanted to be in, but didn't think possible. Finally, in his best acting in the movie, Rhys-Meyers makes us all aware of the trap Chris finds himself in. The rest of the supporting cast is very good, especially Johansson in the scenes where she expresses outrageous emotion, but Match Point is the movie where Rhys-Meyers takes center stage. 3 ½ Waffles (Out Of 4) Copyright 2006 - WaffleMovies.com
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