Love Match

Rating: 8/10 (8 January 2006)

Anyone who missed the opening credits may be forgiven for thinking they had wandered into the wrong auditorium by mistake given that they had paid for a Woody Allen movie on the strength of others they'd seen which, as is his wont, had been sprinkled with one-liners. Here we get a virtually straight story in which Woody seems to be hijacking Tom Ripley and/or other amoral Patricia Highsmith characters and amalgamating them into someone who, like Tom Ripley, ingratiates himself into a social class other than the one into which he was born and then does what he has to do in order to remain there and, as with Highsmith, gets away with it. This is not to detract from the entertainment on offer, the actors work well as an ensemble and Allen's writing and direction are up to his usual standard but one wonders if he is running out of ideas and whether this Ripleyesque character will emerge again ... and again.