Clever, very clever, with a nice surprise ending

Rating: 9/10 (19 August 2010)

This has one of the neatest bits of stage business you are likely to ever see in a movie. Keep your eye the ball (or ring) as it hits the net, or perhaps a railing. Whether it falls forward or backward can make all the difference in the world.
I can't believe that tennis players say the same thing that poker players say: "I'd rather be lucky than good." Poker players say that because there is a significant element of chance involved in any given hand; and besides they already think they're good. It is the other guy who is lucky.
Jonathan Rhys-Meyers stars as Chris Wilton, a poor Irish boy on the make. He is handsome, charming, smart, and a very good tennis player who is candid about not quite being good enough against the very best. He gets a job teaching tennis at an exclusive English club and quickly meets and charms a very rich student (Matthew Goode as Tom Hewitt) who has a sister (Chole, played by Emily Mortimer) who finds him irresistible.
Well, how lucky can you get? Complication: Scarlett (the sexiest woman on earth, at one time, anyway, according to some magazine) Johansson playing Nola Rice, who is seriously dating the very eligible Tom Hewitt. (You could say she's on the make as well.) She's an American would-be actress who can't quite wow them at the auditions in London. She is sitting pretty however because if she marries Tom she will be set for life.
I could go on, but the plot is so delicious that I don't want to spoil it for you. It's a variation on the venerable theme of rake's progress, employing in an interesting way the old adage, "The man who marries for money earns it." I have only one criticism of this especially well directed effort from the redoubtable Mr. Allen: you could have done without that cheesy ghost or hallucination scene near the end, involving sweet lips Scarlett and her neighbor.
See this for Woody Allen, who is just as smooth with this upscale noir/Hitchcockian thriller as he is with his renowned comedic and satirical efforts. And to think the guy will be 75 in December.
(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)