Woody Allen Must Never Die

Rating: 10/10 (21 February 2006)

Having just returned from an afternoon screening of the latest Woody Allen film, all I can say is that I am in awe. In awe of a man, who after more than thirty years of film-making is still able to be so original, so poignant, so powerful, and so creative. Now into his seventies Woody has either written, directed or stared in (usually all three) a movie virtually ever year since 1969's 'Take The Money and Run' and with his latest 'Match Point' finally arriving in theaters he shows no signs of slowing down his prolific pace of unparalleled creativity as his latest project is undoubtedly his best in years.
The story revolves around an affluent British family and their particularly ambitious new son in-law. Chris (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) is a retired tennis pro who's recently taken a position as an instructor at one of London's most exclusive Country clubs. It is at this post that he meets and befriends Tom (Matthew Goode) a young executive in his father's highly successful London based business (the nature of which is never revealed). Tom introduces Chris to the high life, a world of garden parties and opera, a world Chris has dreamed of but has always been forced to view it from the outside like so many window displays that line Savell Row, Chris' new favorite shopping district. All seems to be running according to plan, Chris meets Tom's sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer) and the two hit it off, sparking a relationship that comes with a promising new career in the family business attached, when on a cloudy British afternoon Chris meets Nola (Scarlet Johansson) a struggling American actress from Boulder, Colorado who also happens to be Tom's fiancé. The two are instantly and irrevocably attracted to one another and begin to run into each other around London, each visit bringing an increased sexual tension until a countryside tryst confirms what both had suspected. Soon however, what they had falls apart as Nola doesn't wish to continue their deceitful liaisons. Eventually Tom and Nola end their engagement and Nola seems to disappear forcing Chris to settle into his perfect life, that is until a chance meeting at an art gallery drives the two to resume their ill-fated relationship, a relationship that will eventually prove deadly.
'Match Point' marks a return for Allen to the thematic ideas he's explored in previous outings such as 'Crimes and Misdemeanors' and 'Hannah and Her Sisters,' themes of lust, rejection, deceit and most of all luck. The theme of chance and opportunity is a common one throughout Woody's films but he had yet to attacked this topic with such fervor and brilliance. Let's not forget to mention suspense, Allen comes closer to Hitchcock than he or any other director of recent years has ever been able to, I guarantee you will spend the last twenty minutes of this film on no more that the edge of your seat.
Woody Allen is back in fine form, better than we've seen him a few years, there's no denying it, and I am personally begging you to do yourself a favor and join him at the theater; you won't be disappointed.