Typing soap

Rating: 4/10 (21 February 2006)

After having been announced as the best Woody Allen Film in many years (like every Woody Allen Film somehow is), Match Point pulled me over the line  and pushed me back.
The cast is credible and appropriate in their roles, but annoyingly stereotyped in their appearance and behaviour, with Scarlett Johanssons role as a slight exception. Also the world around Chris is stereotyped. The stock chart on his office desk is a gimmick and to show him pulling heavy business, he shakes hands with Japanese guys, saying "Sayonara". His heartless mother-in-law is THE heartless mother-in-law. To show how much Chris lost interest in his wife he doesn't answer to Chloe's remarks on earthquakes in China and the fact that a new planet has been discovered. In a restaurant, the former poor Irish guy is longing for roasted chicken, while the high society snobs prefer french cuisine and caviar, of course. Nobody ever works. This is daily soap style.
Allen uses these things to make us understand that the characters are all decadent and hollow, but that is very obvious already. The most disappointing thing, however, is the screenplay. This is the art that Allen used to push forward when he was writing short stories in the 70s, but in Match Point his type machine has lost all edges. I cannot remember a single sharp dialogue line. Because of his tendency towards stretching the plot (according to the IMDb, it is the longest movie he ever made), and the decision to mainly build the story on weak performing Jonathan Rhys Myers, the interest in any further human behaviour observation is lost half way. Chabrol or Malle describe these worlds much better.
Amazingly, many people love this movie, call it clever, intelligent, and recommend it for important awards. To me, that is truly astonishing. That's the good thing about movies. You can make up your own mind.