Woody's sparkling Hitchcockian Comeback

Rating: 10/10 (5 June 2015)

ALLEN ENTERS NEW TERRITORY WITH "MATCH POINT"
Viewed at 2005 San Sebastian Film Festival featuring centenary homage to Alfred Hitchcock. Though there were no films by Hitchcock on view, several films are in a way a homage to the master. "Match Point", the latest from Woody Allen is a vast departure from his usual form and is, in effect, a Hitchcockian suspense thriller filmed in London no less, with an entirely English cast except for a smashingly sexy Scarlett Johansson in a most uncharacteristic vamp role, as the sole American presence – (and what a presence she is!).
At a turning point in his life, an unscrupulous social climbing former tennis pro falls for a scrumptuous femme-fatal type (Scarlett Jo) who happens to be dating his new best friend and soon-to-be brother-in-law. Her blatant irresistibility forces him to tread a skittery fine line between acceptance or expulsion from the high society he has edged his way into -- like a tennis ball teetering on top of the net at a decisive win-or-lose "match point". Also the metaphor for which way the evidence will fall when he is a suspect in Scarlett's shocking but necessary murder. Young Scarlett really sets the celluloid aflame in this stylish shot out of Mr. Konigsberg's Twilight Zone, with sensitive support from Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the freaked-out lover-killer who in the end will go unpunished.
Woody has strayed from comedy before with mixed results but this no-nonsense edge of the seat entry into typical Hitchcockian territory demonstrates his versatility as nothing before. The tennis background is perfectly employed to a breath-taking conclusion where a tennis ball teeters momentarily on the top of the net and can fall either way. Johansson, moreover, pulls out all the stops and shows she can act as well as just look gorgeous — and sexier than ever as a scheming heartless femme fatale. Hats off to both Woody and Scarlett for a perfectly realized neo Film Noir. Alfred would have loved it!
An extra dessert for Opera fans; Since both leading men are opera lovers the musical score is made up entirely of opera excerpts with remastered Caruso recordings and oodles of Verdi arias commenting subtly on the proceedings of this amoral operatic film noir masterpiece.