Feeling Lucky?

Rating: 8/10 (30 April 2006)

Chris Wilson (Rhys-Meyers) a tennis pro works his way into British upper class society, marries the rich girl and gets a cushy job with her father's London business and has the world by the tail. Then Nola (Johansson) becomes available and Chris wants her. Some luck, eh?
This was directed by Woody Allen and if there are laughs in here, they must be a British thing because I didn't see them. No one did. Not even the British. But, that's okay, this is a good, although too long, movie. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers still looks an awful lot like a young Elvis Presley and Scarlett Johansson looks like, well.. heaven.. where all prayers have been answered. The movie is worth seeing just to gaze upon her beauty.
Match Point in tennis means that whatever side has the advantage and wins this point, wins the match. Woody Allen opens the movie with the match point ball hitting the net cord and if the Ad side hit that ball and it goes over, the match is won. If it doesn't go over, then the game continues until one side has the opportunity to get to another match point. Some will say luck plays a very important part in this game and maybe in life itself. The tennis ball hitting the net cord that opens the movie comes full circle later on and is extremely cleverly done.
Okay, so it's not a comedy, but a drama and later on a thriller..sort of. That's not so bad. Just when you think everything will be revealed and the characters start running for cover, Chris does something quite unexpected and this is where I sat up and took notice. I was shocked at what he was going to do. I couldn't believe it and hoped I was wrong. And, this was the only part of the movie where I began to care for the characters. Before that I didn't care. OK, I lied, I cared for Nola from the minute I first saw her. Come on, she's Scarlett Johansson!
Now, which way did the ball bounce? Over the net or did it stay on this side? Let me sum it up this way, be careful what you wish for and hope that you get lucky when you do get it. I suppose the real question here is was Chris on the Advantage side or the other side when the ball was deciding where to go?