Match Point
And the award for comeback filmmaker of the year goes to…Woody Allen. No sooner was I- and many- prepared to write off the aging filmmaker as a washed-up has-been whose best days had been long behind him than the Woodman- known recently for the crass, self-aware neurosis of his high-concept comedies (is anyone really calling “Hollywood Ending” or “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion” among his best?)- delivers two movies that reminded us why we liked him in the first place. The first was “Melinda & Melinda,” a storytelling experiment- which told two parallel stories about the same woman (played by Radha Mitchell, who’s been my choice for Best Actress- but seemingly no one elses- for the better part of the year) from different sensibilities (one comic, the other tragic)- that featured Allen’s sharpest writing in years, even when the chore of going between two stories made for a choppy film.
Now comes “Match Point,” which rates as one of the year’s best thrillers as it tells the story of Chris, a former tennis player- turned tennis pro- who becomes friends with Tom, one of his pupils at the country club he works at, and becomes a privileged guest in Tom’s wealthy family when he begins to sleep with Tom’s sister Chloe. At the time, Tom has a fiancee, an American actress struggling to making it in London named Nola. Chris and Nola have a brief fling in a rainy field, but lose touch when Chris and Chloe marry and Tom calls things off between the two. Nola disappears for a spell, and returns again, further inflaming Chris’ lustful urges at a time when he and Chloe are having problems conceiving a child.
That’s all the plot you’ll get out of me, partly because few thrillers have been so unpredictably pleasurable, partyly because I don’t want to risk giving anything else up that would ruin the experience for you. Woody’s got some great wild cards up his sleeve that explore the ways a person can be corrupted by greed and lust, and how things become further complicated when both don’t come from the same place. You won’t laugh to much in this film (no surprise for people who’ve watched Allen’s recent films ;), though here it’s by design, not accident), but the wicked wit Allen achieves goes hand-and-hand with his sharp plotting and characterizations. More so than any other recent film, Allen’s cast of characters is rich and detailed, and played by great actors, not necessarily hot stars. As Chris, Jonathan Rhys Meyers is devastatingly charismatic with just the right glint of sinister intentions and transparent feeling towards his wife- played by Mortimer (who triumphed earlier this year in the forgotten gem “Dear Frankie”) as a lovely but over-bearing wife who long settled into the life her parents gave her- to let the audience see past his passive dialogue with the characters and see the social-climber within without delving into true villainy- disturbingly, Allen has made the most despicable character in the end one we subconciously want to succeed. As Tom, Matthew Goode is very good at playing a decent guy who knows a good thing when he’s got it; his rationale for dumping Nola and joy at finding his future wife is believable and charismatically British. As Nola, Scarlett Johansson- who’s also doing Allen’s new film- is a sexy, feisty firecracker whose bewitching charm works as well on the male audience as it while also breaking your heart in the way that Chris- who’s slyly manipulative- uses her. After what I felt was an overrated performance in “Lost in Translation” (sorry, I just didn’t think her character was as poignant as Murray’s) and one that was merely window dressing in this summer’s “The Island,” this is a terrific, tantilizing return to acting form for Johansson, who won me- and a lot of people- over with her early triumphs in “The Horse Whisperer” and “Ghost World.” After watching “Match Point,” don’t be surprised if you feel the same way about its’ writer-director. Welcome back Woody.
