Disappointing...

Rating: 6/10 (25 January 2006)

I am not a big fan of Woody Allen. I find him too self-indulgent and a bit hard to relate to in many of his movies. I like some of his work. I especially enjoy his dialogs. I have always thought that even if I do not like anything in a Woody Allen film, I will enjoy the dialog.
Well, not so in Match Point. I went not expecting much, because, again, I am not a big fan of his and I don't like "love triangles", which is what the movie seemed to be about from the previews. I don't know what happened to Woody's writing, but the script sucked! I cannot be more elegant than this, I'm afraid, because the dialog that I had so faithfully counted on was worse than most of the rubbish that comes out of Hollywood! It was almost shocking, except my low expectations prevented me from being entirely surprised. I think this attempt at good dialog could have succeeded if the main characters were acted well, but unfortunately, they weren't. It seemed like Johansson was stuck at her Lost in Translation role and Rhys-Meyers was transplanted into the film from Bend it Like Beckham! In the beginning a sexy sultry Nolah was welcome but later on the Nolah trapped in a desperate situation was flat. As much as I felt that Chris Wilton was being an opportunistic jerk, I found it impossible to sympathize with Nolah. Maybe I wasn't supposed to, but it seemed like Allen would really want us to, if only he could make us... I also did not like being hit over the head over and over with the Crime and Punishment parallel. I had thought Allen to be a director and writer capable of a more subtle and finer take on the underlying factors of motive and consequence.
Overall, the plot was decent. The supporting cast was good. But the main characters and Woody Allen really disappointing.