Not a must-see, really. Ultimately disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (9 October 2006)

Nobody could say that Woody Allen treads new ground here. So many similar movies come to mind, Renoir's la règle du jeu, Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, Gerd Oswald's version of Ira Levin's super-thriller A Kiss Before Dying, the rendition of several Patricia Highsmith novels, etc. etc.
So what new aspects does Woody Allen bring to a well known story? Very little, I am afraid. At best it is a well filmed update with famous 21st century locations in London (Swiss Re tower aka Gherkin", Tate Modern, minimalistic glass house duplex apartment on the Thames) and an attempt to grapple with the actual state of rich First World societies in the era of Globalization.
The characters seem to be cardboard cutouts. Even a talented, experienced actor like Brian Cox moves around like a robot  the notable exceptions being the two persons who will get killed. Now I know that Mr Allen is a smart man and I can assume that the lack of personal traits in the characters is intentional. I can only guess that it should illustrate the actual state of human relations and the barbaric, little concealed greed of post modern capitalism. Unfortunately, the main characters are just not convincing. Take Brian Cox who plays the father-in-law of the rags to riches main character. Is that man, Alex Hewett, old wealth or nouveau riche with a thin varnish of fake cultivation? It is impossible for me to tell. Even this cultural disorientation" might be intentional  and maybe REALLY smart  but considering that the story has a specific and in every sense exclusive setting one really expects a more firm footing or deeper roots for the Hewett family. Moreover, I could not convince myself that Alex Hewett loves his son-in-law. The young upstart does not seem to be very good company and his ingratiating attitude is rather obnoxious. And the rise from the minor tennis pro to a corporate big shot within a few weeks just did not help to make the story more believable to me.
After a very good and promising start the movie slows down considerably. Some scenes seem to be mere stuffing" because the movie would have been too short otherwise. The tennis match-aspect is not pursued for very long and almost gets forgotten. The build up to the climax is painfully slow and eventless and requires the viewer's patience. A master of suspense Mr Allen is not. After the climax the ghosts of the dead come to haunt the hero, an occasion for a few good and wise lines  but which viewer is at that point attentive enough and willing to stomach a rather unexpected change of mode?
Somhow Match Point can not decide what it wants to be: Satire, drama, suspense-thriller or simply ethno-kitsch. To move the action to England might have been an unwise decision. When I think how brilliantly Allen tackled an interesting subject in Mighty Aphrodite, I wonder if the film would not have been better had it been shot in New York.