Don't fall for the Critics Hype

Rating: 5/10 (28 May 2006)

Woody, Woody, Woody I admit it, I have not gone to a Woody Allen movie in 15 years. So, marketed in by the great critical reviews, I rented Match Point. Oy vey.
Woody keeps those themes going; love versus lust, aimlessness versus responsibility; empty souls versus warm hearts; crime versus punishment; purpose versus random acts; normality versus mayhem and what's the difference, bleakness and happiness. He was trying to emulate the Great Hitchcock and he did get some of it right.
These are excellent points in the film but somewhere he lost his way in the art of filmaking. I don't know, a removal from life's realities; too much time in a New York apartment building. The movie should have been 30 minutes shorter or maybe 45. It also had a connect the dots approach.
The actors superseded the material except for Scarlett Johanssen who of course is a lust to look at but the husky voice and constant cigarette smoking took away from the character.
Excellent work by everybody else and Woody must share in the credit for that aspect.