Crime without punishment: MATCH POINT

Rating: 9/10 (6 October 2009)

Chris Wilton, a young Irish tennis player who retired from racing, he decided to move to London to teach in the privileged club. Falls in love with Chloe, a wealthy girl sister of Tom Hewitt, one of his pupils. The two married and he will attempt success. Woody Allen changed genre, or at least the kind that has distinguished career especially in recent years. But most change city and the translation seems not to bother with this great filmmaker who exceeded the threshold of seventy years, shows have a talent and a clarity that are the envy of everyone. The young social climber (a resounding Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is some experience with the natural environments of high finance in London as the same train for the first time out of his "lair" in a strange city, and so far from his beloved New York and describes the English capital with equal thoroughness. "Match Point" is a psychological drama about fate, greed and luck that subtly govern our lives: the initial image of the tennis ball hitting the tape of the network and remains suspended for a moment not knowing which way will, serves as a paradigm to the entire film. Everything is going wrong until the meeting with Nola, Tom's girlfriend, actress penny but highly ambitious, creates chaos in his life. And it is during the first time the irrepressible sensuality of Scarlett Johansson, the temptation made woman, is the host: seduces Chris with every glance at the first appearance in the hall of unsettling in a game of ping pong ups well calibrated by Allen. Irresistible, magical, fatal. Body and spark the passion flares, clouds the mind, in the pouring rain in that house. But the reality lies. And the news of a future unwanted pregnancy as the protagonist is forced into a corner. Yeah, because that son that his wife worked so hard to conceive for a mocking sign of destiny is born from the wrong woman: the object of desire has now become an obstacle to his rise to power. And in a ''sleepless night'', tormented by a thousand thoughts, get used to a certain standard of living and scared of a possible "return to origin", will take the drastic decision. Even the most cynical of another director's previous masterpiece "Crimes and Misdemeanors", there was at least present a subtle religious background who tried in vain to untie even the character which had fallen from perdition and bring them away to starboard, "Match Point" is a film purely atheistic. No one is exempt from sin in a universe composed of pieces, where human beings are manipulated and manipulators. A constant struggle for survival with no holds barred which has as its primary objective to preserve intact their social status: unlike a game of tennis here, there are no rules. Woody Allen is aware of this, the film embellishes the opera songs that infuse more of a climate of tragedy in history. What is more dispersed in the course of the special literal vision, travel, food and loud calls style Hithcock which are fully visible than in the character of Scarlett, (which has the same morbid fascination of Kim Novak of "Vertigo") in the evolution of the story increasingly taking implications from Thriller. His staging is simple and essential: fields, reverse shot, soft wheels and meaningful close-ups. Cold air is detached in London is perfectly rendered by an impeccable photography. Final pessimistic as unforgiving: you can live with a perpetual sense of guilt, but in the complete immorality of a world adrift punishment would be useless.