Woody at 70: Opera and Tennis

Rating: 8/10 (5 December 2005)

Woody Allen's new film "Match Point" has five large themes, three of which are among my principal passions: opera, tennis, London, murder, and a thesis that sheer, dumb luck is not only the origin of life, but also its most decisive element.
Except for a bit of a sag halfway through it, "Match Point" is one Allen's best films, a significant claim to make considering his involvement in the making of about as many movies as his age - an amazing accomplishment for Allen Konigsberg of Brooklyn, born on Dec. 1, 1935.
"Match Point," about the spectacular rise and "Crimes and Misdemeanors"-like un-fall of a young tennis pro (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, in a career-making performance), opens and closes with Caruso singing "Una furtiva lagrima," it contains a virtually nonstop series of opera excerpts, and its long climactic scene is accompanied by the finale of Verdi's "Otello." Why the switch from jazz to opera? "The story is operatic," Allen has said. "It deals with the kinds of things that opera is so often about: love and lust, passion and jealousy, betrayal and tragedyand, of course, the confluence of fate and luck."
Always excelling in casting (even in his many weaker films), Allen has outdone himself in "Match Point" - Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer, Matthew Goode, Brian Cox, Penelope Wilton, and others all turn in topnotch performances, almost all playing characters that are different from previous movie (if not stage) roles.
Glory be: "Match Point" has no whining, no Woody-isms, it may be fully enjoyed by those who have developed a kind of allergy to Allen's increasingly bothersome mannerisms over the years. Almost uniquely among his films, this has neither him nor a "Woody Allen character." The tennis is so-so, but London (a new venue for New York-bound Allen) is marvelously real and alive. All this and lots of Caruso - what a treat!