There is no moral ambiguity

Rating: 10/10 (14 August 2006)

I heard some good things about Match Point, but I never expected what I got from this. I usually appreciate knowing little about a film before I see it, this is one of those times. Written and directed by Woody Allen, this beautiful masterpiece, set in England, has a subtext of the opera (perhaps if Dostoevsky wrote it). There is no soundtrack except some opera in the background of some scene transitions. The protagonist, played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, begins as a tennis instructor and ex-tennis pro who finds a mutual interest in the opera with one of his students, and is introduced into his family and the beginning of this turmoil. Throughout the film, he attends the opera several times. This is all fitting well with the tragic tale Allen tells.
The man who said "I'd rather be lucky than good" saw deeply into life. People are often afraid to realize how much of an impact luck plays. There are moments in a tennis match where the ball hits the top of the net, and for a split second, remains in mid-air. With a little luck, the ball goes over, and you win. Or maybe it doesn't, and you lose.
The movie opens with this narration, and it moves through the film as a mode used in various plot turns. Luck. Meyers finds himself in the social elite through a friendship turned to family. His life moves from ex-tennis pro to social climber with new opportunities, family that loves him, and a generally comfortable life. He even (in his own mind) finds himself lucky to satiate a lustful desire to have Scarlett Johansson, even though he is soon to be married to her fiancé's (his best friend) sister. And we find the "match point" that I've succinctly called a "double entendre". A match point is the last point made in a tennis match to win the game, but it's also indicative of the head of a match that, if struck, would ignite into flame. Meyers lives his life in the time the tennis ball is hovering over the net. If he's lucky, it will land on the right side and he will win, or it will land on the wrong side, and his life is shattered. The end of the movie lands a "match point" that doesn't bring joy, but pensive guilt. The ball lands on the right side of the net, but nobody has won, and many have lost.
The production of the film is, as some have said, what a film should look like when everything is done right. The colors, the acting, the backdrop, everything is beautiful. I was thinking to myself that the cinematography looked how it would if I were to make a film. The screenplay is so personal the dialog and characters are believable, and you can really see into their lives. The protagonist is his own antagonist, and this tragic story leaves you trying to figure out if you should be sad for, or angry at, Meyers. Woody Allen created an opera for a new age.