I'd Rather Be Lucky Than Good

Rating: 9/10 (13 October 2006)

The Irish former professional player Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) from the lower class gets a job as tennis instructor in an upper class club in London. Chris becomes close to his student Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), who introduces him to his British upper class family, and Tom's sister Chloe immediately falls in love with him. The ambitious Chris keeps the relationship with Chloe, feeling lust for Tom's fiancée, the American aspirant actress Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson), and they have a brief affair. Chris gets married to Chloe and climbs to a high position in a company of the Hewett's family, while Tom breaks his engagement with Nola. When Chris meets Nola by chance, he becomes obsessed for her and she becomes his mistress. When Nola gets pregnant and presses him, he balances the financial advantages of his marriage but he has to take a decision in his life and choose the woman he wants for his companion.
The great director Woody Allen moved his landscape from Manhattan to London to present a totally different movie, actually a film-noir. The amoral story of ambition, love, desire, obsession, lust and crime is totally different from his previous works and I really liked it a lot. His screenplay and direction are excellent and deserve the wins and nominations listed in IMDb. I loved the quote "The man who said I'd rather be lucky than good saw deeply into life". Scarlett Johansson is incredibly sexy as I have never seen before and has another outstanding performance in the role of Nola Rice. Jonathan Rhys Meyers has his best character and performance in his career. The movie begins with Chris reading Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic "Crime and Punishment", and ends with him living "Crime and (Un) Punishment", by Woody Allen. Even if you do not like Woody Allen's films, see "Match Point" that you probably will like it. My vote is nine.
Title (Brazil): "Match Point"