Woody Allen's Surefooted Noir

Rating: 8/10 (31 March 2006)

Some delightful things are happening in Woody Allen's new movie and, even though there are points of similarity with previous films in the septuagenarian's filmography, this is a red-blooded, raw, and--yes--refreshing addition to his cannon.
It was always questionable whether Allen's blend of comedy and drama (even tragedy) was effective or legitimate in a filmic sense. He did great WOODY ALLEN movies, didn't he? And no one was particularly dazzled by the ambitious filmmaker's sleight of hand. His "thesis" was never accepted by the filmgoing public as completely valid...even early in his career, starting with the Bergman pastische, INTERIORS, in 1977; the desire of the director to wear masks and disguise his work or dress it up were always--at once--recognized as posing. Eventually, the hallmark dramedy of Allen's peculiar variety became all his own. This was best exemplified by 1989's CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS, where the balance was, in fact, perfect, and Allen's weighty moralizing was leavened with fey one-liners and sight gags.
Which brings us to MATCH POINT. This is Allen's most confident and controlled direction since (at least)1999's SWEET AND LOWDOWN and, like its closest cousin, CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS, MATCH POINT again asks whether morality and human desire are acquaintances....or complete strangers.
Allen's first grace note is placing the story in modern London, and cinephiles cannot help but remember that Hitchcock, in the twilight of his career, returned to London for the salacious murder-mystery of FRENZY. The analogy is apt since Allen firmly inhabits the other Master's realm of suspense, leaving the viewer to wonder if Allen's best amalgam of comedy and tragedy resides here... in a resurrected brand of film noir: both highly artificial and heightened in its store of cinematic effects. There are also echoes of Patricia Highsmith (Hitch's collaborator on STRANGERS ON A TRAIN), particularly in the chance meeting of two attractive young men, the motif of tennis (Hitchcock again), and in Chris Wilton's dark, rather Ripley-like anti-hero (Highsmith).
Allen's second success is in the writing and casting of Chris Wilton: a vain, selfish, greedy, and overly-ambitious young man (just as those great 1960's and '70's film anti-heroes used to be!) played with surly abandon by a post-Elvis Jonathan Rhys Meyers. His work is engaging and spirited, and there's an animal-like cunning there reminiscent of a young Malcolm McDowell. Because Allen makes Wilton our protagonist and point of identification, we have no choice but to root for one of the coldest users to come our way since Highsmith's Ripley. This is not pure noir since there is little redeeming in Chris, but the structure (no spoilers!) closely follows all the convolutions of a noir where our young, morally-compromised, "hero" gets himself into a mess, tries to extract himself, and gets in even deeper as a result. How Allen ends the film is one of the confident masterstrokes which makes MATCH POINT such an engaging entertainment. (I saw it in a crowded theater and the audible gasps of appreciation at its suspense were the highest compliment that can be paid a director.)
Along the way we have wonderful character performances by Emily Mortimer as the clueless fiancée, Brian Cox as the benevolent papa, and a pair of sterling comic performances by Ewen Bremner and James Nesbitt as the clever detectives. (Even Scarlett Johanssen provides the right notes in her portrayal of Nola.) It's all well-blended with the sort of location detail that enhanced many New York-based Allen movies, as well as a moody soundtrack soaring with the arias of Verdi. The dialogue, even spoken by British accents, doesn't entirely lose Allen's resonances, but this is a small complaint, and one of no great importance, in the tight unfolding of this suspenseful noir story.
This was the right movie for Allen to make at this point in his career. He comes to the material as both a film fan, and as a proved auteur, who can use reliable cinematic effects to create a true suspense highlight in a long and already-impressive filmography.