In the Realm of Film-Noir

Rating: 10/10 (14 January 2006)

Would it that this film had been made in the Forties or Fifties when film-noir was at its high point! Woody Allen, one of America's best directors pays his homage to the genre in his latest film about romantic obsession, and if his name weren't in the opening credits you wouldn't know he directed it. Taking a break from filming in the city he loves the most, deleting every trace of the well known neurotic hoots and clicks from his main and supporting British cast, and even removing the trademark reference to his own persona from Jonathan Rhys-Meyers' performance, MATCH POINT becomes a very European film that starts out deceptively as a character study with comedic tones and ever so subtle moves into the darker side of love, echoing THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE and of all films, FATAL ATTRACTION.
A love quadrangle, the oldest plot device, is Allen's focus this time: Chris Wilton (Rhys-Meyers), a retired tennis player, becomes an instructor to Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode). Both find that they have similar interests, such as the love of opera and the works of Dostoyevsky. (They have another similar interest, but I'm getting there). Tom invites Chris for an evening at the opera and introduces him to his family and sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer), who falls for him and who later on signifies familial safety in all forms. Sensing an opportunity to climb the social ladder he starts seeing her just as he meets Nola Rice (Scarlett Johanssen), an aspiring American actress, whom he openly flirts with until he realizes she's Tom's girlfriend, but an outsider in the Wilton household. A clandestine affair between Chris and Nola begins tentative at first -- she advises him against it since it would ruin his chances to become a success and she is engaged to Tom -- but turns deeper. However, a turn of events transpire, taking Nola out of the picture, having Tom marry another girl and Chris marry Chloe, and start to get complicated once Chris tracks Nola down.
Like I said, would it that MATCH POINT would have been filmed 60 years ago because everything in it smolders like the plot elements of the sleekest of noir films. With a deliberate pace that begins taking a sinister shape after the second half, Allen misdirects the audience to the very core. Allen avoids any trace of romantic melodrama, though, and in showing what actually transpires between a couple ensnared in an affair -- their initial bedazzlement, their passion consummated, turning into routine and then its painful decline -- is true to life. Nola, initially seen in white much like Lana Turner in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE seems to be in total control until Allen deftly pulls the rug out of her feet and has her do a slow collapse into her own trap, dressed in darker and darker colors. Chris, at first, so lusts after her it's a question if he can choose her love over social status and this becomes the crux of MATCH POINT: whether the tennis ball falls over the net or not.
There are moments when you think that a director who once had his audience eating out of his hand has gone into autopilot or entered a point of no return. Up until recently, Woody Allen had had even his most hardcore fans put through the ringer with film after film of a disposable nature. With this film, which has a strong connection to CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, he shows that he never was gone. In erasing all references to his staccatto style, he wins over a new audience willing to accept his work with ease and this is at times necessary: like Hitchcock's self-effacing FRENZY, MATCH POINT is an excellent movie showcasing a director in full control of his ability to tell a visual tale. Maybe not up there with the best of his roster but pretty damn close, and that's saying quite a wallop.