Allen shows us his darker, subtler side

Rating: 9/10 (1 October 2006)

Match Point is a film that isn't about the blurriness of right and wrong, but is about the struggle between various degrees of evil to come out on top. As the film reminds us countless times, it's a struggle that doesn't rely on skill or guile, but luck. This film is a pleasant return to form for Woody Allen, after his last fifteen years of churning out insipid comedies that aren't indicative of his enormous talent.
The first thing I should say about this film is that it is unrecognisable as a Woody Allen film. It's not a comedy (although there are one or two Woody-style laughs), he's not in it romancing Scarlet Johansson (thankfully), and it's set in London instead of Manhattan. For those of you out there who generally don't like Woody Allen (and as much as I love and respect the little guy, I know his style doesn't click with everyone), I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with this film. It's not full of the whimsical humour and confidence (many would say, borderline arrogance) of his comedies, but instead is imbued with a sense of darkness and tragedy that we haven't seen from him in a very long time.
Jonathan Rhys-Meyers puts in the best performance I've seen from him as Chris Wilton, a former tennis pro who meets Tom (Matthew Goode) and kind of falls for his sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer). I say "kind of falls for her" because as the film unfurls, it becomes clear that he's after a higher status, is willing to do anything for it, and almost everything that he does is questionable. Chloe's father (Brian Cox) is extremely wealthy and offers Chris a job as an executive at one of his companies. Chris meets Tom's fiancée, Nola (Scarlet Johansson), an American wannabe actress who is also seeking a marriage into wealth and status. Tom's parents don't approve of her as much as they do of Chris, which is made clear during a conversation she has with Tom's mother (Penelope Wilton) regarding her acting 'career'.
Unfortunately for Chris and Nola, they are more attracted to each other than the lifestyles they are trying to acquire. Now, Chris is torn between greed and lust, and the way he handles this situation is where the true genius of the film lies. Unfortunately, I can't reveal too much more of the story without spoiling any surprises, but trust me in that aside from being one of Allen's best character pieces, it is also an incredibly effective psychological thriller. I think much of the film's success has to do with Chris's feeling of fear. He's afraid that he'll lose the lifestyle he wants so badly, but is also afraid that Nola will cause his downfall if he doesn't keep her happy. He wants to satisfy both his greed and his lust, and is too selfish to let one of the two go. Oh, what to do, what to do? You'll find out.
Scarlet Johansson is ridiculously sexy in this film. I suppose she has to be in order to make it believable that she would seduce Chris to such an extent that he would consider losing everything to have her. Rhys-Meyers and Johansson have incredible chemistry that makes the film impossible not to become engrossed in. The sex scenes (and they certainly are sex scenes rather than love scenes) are incredibly raunchy, despite the fact that there is no nudity and the most we see of either of them is Rhys-Meyers' chest and Johansson's bra.
A lot of this film's second half is a modern re-telling of a certain novel by a certain Russian novelist (I won't tell you which book or which author in order to preserve the twists, but there is a hint of what it is early in the film). Match Point is Allen's finest film since Bullets over Broadway and I'd like to think that the reason his twelve films in between are so comparatively poor is because he was building up the courage to make this masterpiece, which is an opera in movie form. Upon further thought, I think I'm wrong. I think Match Point has been a film Allen's been torturing over and writing in his head since the beginning of his career, and I'd go so far as to say it's one of his top two or three best films.