Very poor start and awful dialogue throughout

Rating: 5/10 (17 January 2006)

While many hoped that changing genres and filming outside of New York City would re-energise Allen, Match Point fails to live up to expectations.
Jonathan Rhys-Meyers plays Chris, a tennis-pro who proves to be an amoral narcissist, doing terrible things to retain his wealth. He is a man with only desires, obsessions and hollow passion, and his silent anguish is one of the few highlights of the film.
To say that the film gets off to a slow start would be an unforgivable understatement - for best part of the first hour Allen tortures the silently suffering audience with his view of upper-class England. The dialogue is just awful - it made me want to get up and leave after 10 minutes. I sat with my hand over my mouth, astounded that the production company allowed this to be released. It is shocking, and ruined the whole film for me. I suppose it is a result of the combination of very poor scripting and amateur delivery, especially on the part of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. Even veteran actors such as James Nesbitt (playing a small part as Detective Banner) cannot make such a limp script come to life.
The second half of the film brings some welcome respite as the pace quickens and suspense builds - Jonathan Rhys-Meyers performs much better when he doesn't have to open his mouth! Emily Mortimer plays her part as Chloe (Chris's wife) admirably, but Scarlett Johansson is fails to impress. The final few twists of the story bring it alive, and the ending is really the high point of the film. Nevertheless, the dialogue consigns Allen's latest offering to a lowly 5/10.