Chameleoj Just finished watching this, and the plot gripped me all the way through from beginning to end. Sure there were things to dislike, the not-always accurate British accents, the at-times cheesy dialogue, with slightly too long stares into nothingness, but so much more to like! Matthew Goode and Emily Mortimer play very believable upper-class English characters, and the dialogue flows so naturally, you'd believe you were sitting right in the room with them and their family, listening to their conversations.In my opinion Woody Allen does a great job in making use of the theme of luck, mixed in with some tennis, offering a surprising twist at the end that might have you reconsidering the effect of luck on your own life afterwards. Despite a few minor flaws, a very enjoyable watch! 8/10

oOoBarracuda The idea that much of a person's life is determined simply by chance is an idea that one often wants to ignore. We plan too much, make too many decisions, and have too much control to consider the fact that to a large degree our fate is out of our hands. Woody Allen explores fate and chance in an incredible way in his 2005 film Match Point. Both written and directed by the auteur, Match Point represents a departure for Woody Allen as the first of his films to be shot in London, contain no Woody Allen character, and is the first thriller-type film for the constant genre hopper. There is no such thing as a typical Woody Allen film, I've gone to great lengths to dispel that notion and now seeing 40 of his films in a row, I will never be convinced that he is as one-dimensional as he is often accused. Match Point stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Scarlett Johansson as two individuals who are desperate to enter the fold of the wealthy, so desperate in fact that they are willing to abandon their identities in order to achieve financial riches. A piercing look at the philosophical issues connected to morality and a scathing assessment of class-consciousness, Woody Allen lands on the right side of the net with Match Point.Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a fish out of water in his new position as a tennis instructor at an upscale London tennis club. Previously earning a living as a professional tennis player, Chris couldn't accustom to the constant traveling and wished to find a place to call home. Raised by a modest family in Ireland, Chris believes he sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the London elite. Desperate to fit in and leave his one-bedroom flat, Chris will do anything he needs to in order to come into more money. An opportunity arises when he begins providing lessons for wealthy club member Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode). Throughout the course of their lessons, Chris and Tom become friends and Chris meets Tom's sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer), who instantly finds herself attracted to Chris. Chloe has had an easy ride through life with more money than she's known where to spend and a father who will stop at nothing to make her happy, which essentially includes buying her a boyfriend. Chris is offered a job in one of Chloe's father's companies ensuring that his livelihood would be at stake if he were to ever leave Chloe. That knowledge doesn't stop Chris from becoming attracted to Tom's girlfriend Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson) Nola is a struggling actress from America who is anxious to be brought into the fold of the aristocratic life. Nola, like many, doesn't want to struggle for money nor does she seem apt to put too much into her craft and would much rather marry into a good life. The passion Chris and Nola feel for each other is unable to be ignored and the two begin an affair, leaving Chris to decide if it is worth sacrificing the unfulfilled life that has been arranged for him to pursue the wild card that is Nola. Toto, we"re not in New York anymore. Granted, this was not the first, nor would it be the last time Woody would shoot a film outside of New York but Woody Allen is synonymous in my mind with New York so it is always a shock for me to see a film of his in a different location. Match Point, like every Woody Allen film, has a brilliant opening monologue discussing the notion that most aspects of life are out of our control. The idea that we have no control over our lives brings about an interesting philosophical argument: If life is so meaningless we can't even control it, why not dismiss morality in order to give us the most pleasure. John Stuart Mill probably would have loved Match Point. There isn't a likable character that we ever see on screen, the audience is simply introduced to a host of people who exercise whatever means necessary to bring themselves the most pleasure. A brilliant bit of casting makes the audience wonder just what Chris is capable of from the first time we lay eyes on him. "To never have been born may be the greatest boon of all", this Sophocles quote makes an appearance again in a Woody Allen film but is better explored through the plot of Match Point. Since we're here, we may as well make the best of this existence and those in the film certainly draw no lines while chasing their particular blends of happiness. In addition to the philosophy commonly explored in Woody Allen's films, he also opens fire against the conflict in classes that still exists today. Nola desperately wants to be on the same playing field as her boyfriend Tom, but all doors seem to be closed to that possibility due to her being below his social standing, a fact that both are constantly reminded of by Tom's mother. Social standings are such that no matter how happy Tom is with Nola, she will never be welcome, ultimately causing their separation. Woody Allen makes a fantastic film questioning life's big issues all the while taking a scathing look at the societal constraints affecting everyone. Match Point is certainly not to be missed simply because it isn't a "funny one".

TonyMontana96 Woody Allen is not a director whose films I am familiar with, but the first one I have had the pleasure of seeing is something both smart and funny. Some may find the humour on show, off putting but me I found it extremely amusing and refreshing to what most films call comedy these days; especially during a scene involving Meyers and a shotgun that reminded me of the great film 'American psycho' from the year 2000.The first half hour is pretty simple but effective, Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Chris Wilton) is not sure what he wants to do with his life when he moves to London, during which you see his character getting use to London and meeting new people, like where he meets Tom Hewett played by Matthew Goode at a members only club in a friendly tennis match; in which they become good friends and the family introductions are all done and so forth, then he has a liking for Tom's sister played by Emily Mortimer which ends up with them together, but only later does he meet Tom's fiancée (Nola) played by the beautiful Scarlett Johannsson and has already fell in love with her on their first meet, however as it all unravels you get to see a terrific drama with a comedic tone, some very good romance and a truly great scene involving Johansson and Meyers when they finally kiss and make out in a field during heavy rain.The acting is very good, with some other notable performances from Brian Cox (Eleanor's Father), Penelope Wilton (Eleanor's mother), and Ewen Bremmer as a detective to name a few. However Johansson and Meyers chemistry is even better with both of them giving highly respectable performances and contributing to some of the best moments in the picture. During the first half I kept thinking this is extremely predictable but still completely enjoyable, but by the end I literally ate my words, as the second act and most notably the surprising third act had me on the edge of my seat; and I kept thinking Allen, your script is pure genius, not only did you give us an entertaining film, you gave us a highly entertaining, great piece of filmmaking with a remarkably engaging plot. There's plenty of energy within the cast, it's cleverly written, smartly directed and like I mentioned very amusing with plenty of refreshing dialogue; Match Point is simply a great film.

James Hitchcock Top tennis players are not generally notable culture-vultures- Jim Courier was allegedly much teased by his fellow-professionals for his habit of reading literary fiction such as Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" in the locker room- so heaven knows what the men's tour would have made of Chris Wilton, the central figure of this film, with his love of Dostoyevsky, Modernist art and Grand Opera.As the film opens, Chris, who hates the stress of touring and realises he will never be a Grand Slam champion, has retired from professional tennis and is working as a coach at an exclusive London tennis club. Drawn together by their shared love of opera, he befriends a young man named Tom Hewett, one of his pupils at the club. Tom introduces Chris to his wealthy family, and before long everything seems to be going his way. Chris ends up married to Tom's sister Chloe and is given a job as an executive in the family firm."Match Point" was written and directed by Woody Allen, but during the first half it bears little resemblance to what we have come to think of as a "Woody Allen film". It is set in London rather than New York, none of the characters are Jewish- Woody himself does not appear- and it contains little or no humour. For much of its length it resembles nothing so much as a melodramatic soap opera set among the moneyed classes, "Westenders" rather than "Eastenders". Despite his marriage, Chris cannot resist having an affair with Tom's ex-girlfriend Nola, a beautiful but struggling American actress. Nola, however, is not content with a mere affair. She wants Chris to divorce Chloe and marry her. He does not want to do any such thing but manages to string Nola along by making promises he has no intention of keeping. Matters come to a head when Nola reveals that she is pregnant and threatens to inform Chloe about the affair.It is at this point that "Match Point" starts to resemble a Woody film, one Woody film in particular- "Crimes and Misdemeanors" from 1989, which also dealt with a successful professional man threatened by an inconvenient mistress. In this case Chris, who knows that a divorce would jeopardise his job and his social position, reaches the same conclusion as did Judah in the earlier film- his mistress must die. He comes up with an elaborate scheme to kill Nola and make it look as though she was killed by a burglar.Like "Crimes and Misdemeanors" , "Match Point" can be seen as Woody's debate with the spirit of Dostoyevsky over the themes of his "Crime and Punishment", the novel which Chris is seen reading. Like Dostoyevsky's anti-hero Raskolnikov, both Chris and Judah are atheists and, whereas many people without religious beliefs nevertheless have strong moral principles, they take the view that "Si Dieu n'existe pas, tout est permis". They believe that, if necessity so dictates, any crime, up to and including murder, can be justified.Self-plagiarism is not always a good idea unless one can equal (or, better still, improve upon) one's previous effort, and I am afraid that here Woody falls a long way short of equalling the success he had with "Crimes and Misdemeanors" (in my view one of his greatest films), still less of improving on it. This is only partly because Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Chris is not nearly as good as Martin Landau, who played Judah. "Crimes and Misdemeanors" is a much more complex film in which the bleakness of the "Judah" plot is counterbalanced by a more positive viewpoint put forward by Sam Waterston's rabbi and by a lighter tragi-comic subplot involving Woody himself as one of his trademark neurotic worriers and which contains a good deal of humour. As he demonstrated in "September" (in my view one of his worst films), Woody does not always handle high seriousness unrelieved by humour very well."Match Point" is at least better than "September", for two reasons. The first is that some of the acting is good, especially from Scarlett Johansson as Nola, a tragic figure who genuinely loves Chris and cannot quite accept that he is only using her for sex. (She prefers to believe that he is emotionally torn between her and Chloe, but the truth is that Chris does not love either woman and is only using Chloe for her family's money). Johannsson was a late replacement for Kate Winslet who was originally cast in the role but dropped out.The second reason is the film's ending. Chris has always believed in the importance of luck, comparing life to a tennis match in which a player can either win or lose a point depending on which side of the net the ball falls. The question of whether Chris will be found guilty of Nola's murder or escape scot-free depends upon a similar matter of chance- and there is a brilliant twist at the end, worthy of a great writer like O. Henry or Roald Dahl. The difference is that the twists produced by Henry and Dahl came as the climax to intriguing, economically-written short stories. Woody's twist comes as the climax to a meandering and at times rather dull long story. 6/10