"For a split second, it can either go forward or fall back"

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2009)

Woody Allen's 'Match Point (2005)' is both a tribute and a counterpoint to the classic Hollywood film noir thriller. During the reign of the Production Code from the 1930s to early 1960s, it was a narrative obligation for cinematic criminals to suffer due punishment for their crimes. A typical thriller ideally works towards an unpredictable outcome, but with censorship came a foregone conclusion – thus, directors began emphasising the mechanics of Fate. No matter how perfectly-planned a murder or heist may seem, there is always a single lapse of judgement or fortune that brings down the bad guys (see 'Rififi (1955),' which Allen himself references in a cinema scene). 'Match Point' deconstructs Fate as a driving factor of film noir – there is no overarching providence, only the chance that a tennis ball may fall on either side of the net. Our familiarity with the traditional noir formula thus becomes a red herring; just when you think you know where the story is going, Allen takes another direction.
Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a former tennis player living in London, seemingly has it all. A sequence of fortuitous events leads him to date and later marry Chloe Hewett (Emily Mortimer), a pretty if homely woman from an exceedingly wealthy family (headed by Brian Cox and Penelope Wilton). Whereas any other man might be satisfied with such an arrangement – a high-paying job, an expensive home, a lifetime of financial security – Chris Wilton finds his eye wandering uneasily towards Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson), a failed American actress who once dated his brother-in-law. This scenario recalls Jack Clayton's 'A Room at the Top (1959),' in which Laurence Harvey was forced to choose between the woman he loves, and the woman who can offer him the most. Woody Allen further muddies this dilemma by portraying Nola as little more than a sexual object – basically, Chris is torn between the two sins of greed and lust. That each character, except perhaps for the pathetically-devoted Chloe, is snobbish or unlikable forces the audience to take a more detached, objective viewpoint.
'Match Point' is my first non-comedic Woody Allen film, and I was pleased to note that the director's singular flair for sparkling wit and high-brow cultural references (Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment" aptly makes an appearance) translates just as well to drama as it does comedy. Also impressive was the manner in which the film progresses, with disarming rapidity, from drama into a full-blown noir thriller. When Chris finally makes the decision to do the unthinkable, his actions seem, even then, coolly rational, as though it is the only action now available to him. The ending, too, is a complete surprise. The film methodically sets up the failure of its protagonist – the witness with whom he collides outside the building could easily have been Chris' downfall – but Allen relents with a wholly improbable turn of events that leaves a murderer in the clear. Against all odds (and, indeed, against all narrative convention), a heinous crime goes unpunished, and the audience is left feeling as hollow as Chris Wilton as he stares vacantly out the window, towards nothing.