A little long; a bit too much opera, but absolutely worth it

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2005)

Match Point is an excellent new film from Woody Allen. While not exactly a classic on the level of some of 70's-80's run of films, this one will surely stand out among much of his recent output.
The setup is pure Woody -- a love triangle where the protagonist falls for his fiancée's brother's fiancée. Like a train wreck, we cannot turn away as we watch Chris, a former tennis pro hurtling towards his destiny. His fate, brought about by his own passion-clouded choices winds up being one in which he eventually must choose between staying married to the woman who is "cute", "nice", sensible, and most importantly, filthy rich and (along with her Daddy who employs him) helping provide him with an affluent lifestyle he could hardly afford otherwise; or escape from his marriage to be with the "other woman" that he can hardly contain his passion for.
As the latest in Woody's long line of "femme fatales", Scarlett Johansson certainly fits the bill in this film. Clearly, Woody relishes having her on camera, which lovingly lingers over her features; and while she smolders in many scenes, she never quite ignites in any of them. In fact, she seems to be the only character who exhibits any passion at all in this screenplay -- most other characters barely show any emotion (though this might be a reflection of Woody's depiction of the Brits, who are notorious for keeping their emotions bottled up).
Set in London, this film is a first for Woody, since nearly his entire output has been set in Manhattan, and (as it's often been pointed out) New York City is often as much a character in his films as any of the actors are. London does seem to play a similar role as New York City has in the past for Woody here -- he seemed to enjoy playing the tourist, taking us to a number of well-known tourist locations (including a key scene in the Tate Gallery).
Similarly, another signature of Woody Allen -- the great classic jazz that he features in the soundtrack (probably related to his vision of classic New York City, whose history is inextricable from jazz history) has been supplanted with a soundtrack stacked from beginning to end with classic opera music (I guess Mr. Allen must similarly equate London with opera?). In fact, the opera soundtrack is featured in an extremely prominent manner in most of the key scenes. Personally, I felt like he went overboard in his use of opera music -- I'm not much of a fan, and while I can appreciate others' enjoyment of it; it's just not to my taste.
My only real complaint was that the movie was significantly longer than most of Woody's films, and did get a touch tedious in the middle (Scarlett's character Nola has a number of repetitious scenes) before a major plot twist shifted things into high gear. A few nips and tucks (along with a little less opera) would have made for a sublime movie with a bit faster pacing and could probably be done without losing any narrative flow.