Back to the future

Rating: 7/10 (27 January 2006)

When it seems as if Woody Allen is ready to break free of whatever creative rut his critics assume he is in, the Woodster still manages to regurgitate himself. This movie was better, much better when he did it fifteen years ago and called it Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Not to say that Match Point isn't without merit, but its subject matter is not only familiar territory for Allen, but at two hours maybe a bit too long to prove to Allen that he can do an old Hollywood pot-boiler outside of his beloved NYC....which I think was the point of this whole exercise.
What saves this from being negligible is the same thing that saves most of Woody's movies from falling into "Woody's World" and that's his uncanny ability to get a great performance out of his lead/supporting actresses.
Scarlett Johannson is great in this. Though her introduction scene is poorly staged and written (a ping-pong game?) in an obvious manner to make her seem like a tough, sexy American/Hollywood vixen, Scarlet turns an oversexed caricatured bitch into a sympathetic victim. Unfortunately not enough time is devoted to her character, which would have made for a far more interesting movie.