Woody Allen Returns to Form with Engrossing Match Point

Match Point conspicuously opens with an image of a yellow tennis ball catching the top of the net. The ball can cross the net and land on the opposite side just as easily as it can fall on the same side of the court from which it has traveled. Those familiar with the game of tennis know “it is a game of inches,” and Match Point proposes that this truth applies to life as well. Woody Allen, the film’s writer and director, has crafted a tale of a young tennis pro and constructs the story so effectively that the film works as both a romantic thriller and a commentary on life, love, and class and the luck involved in obtaining the best or worst of all three. The weighty tone of this film is closest to Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors, the 1989 drama that received several Oscar nominations.

Allen, who does not appear in this film, has set this tale in London. (Reportedly, the film is the first of three that he will film there.) Jonathan Rhys Meyers, portrays the central character Chris Wilton, who lands a job teaching tennis at a country club. His background is modest, but he’s intellectually curious and ambitious enough to enjoy the company of the elite clientele he serves. Chris befriends Tom Hewett, a student close to his age and the son of a wealthy businessman. Tom happens to have a sister Chloe, who is sweet and single and who almost immediately falls for Chris. Within weeks the two are dating, and Chris is attending family functions. One afternoon Chris meets Tom’s beautiful girlfriend Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson), an aspiring yet frustrated actress. Although we can see Chris’s instant attraction to Nola, we understand his character’s motives for marrying Chloe.

Chloe, as portrayed by Emily Mortimer, is sensitive and docile and maintains an interesting place within the Hewett family. It’s obvious that it’s been awhile since she has garnered the affections of anyone and she innocently falls for Chris, who’s not sure that he’s as sexually attracted to her as she is to him. Although this becomes more apparent as the film progresses, we know she is the key to Chris’s deepest desires to leave the daily grind of teaching tennis and to live and work among the elite. Brian Cox, who plays the family’s patriarch, places Chris in his firm and welcomes him into the Hewitt family.

After several months Chris is still attracted to Nola and she to him and gradually the two begin an affair. In some sense, they’re two of a kind. Neither is from the same side of the tracks as the people with whom they are in relationship. Their affair is both a comforting and complicating factor for Chris and Nola, and what transpires is a study of the weight of the dilemma facing those who marry one individual while lusting after another.

Match Point achieves as a thriller and a commentary, in part because of the careful performances by Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Scarlett Johansson and Allen’s insightful writing and direction. There is undeniable chemistry between Meyers and Johannson. The actors’ scenes together are sensual without being explicit. Johansson’s Nola is self-centered, but she does feel for Chris. She is seductive and ultimately vulnerable, and Johansson’s physical performance is perfect. Meyers’ Chris is not without vulnerability. He’s attracted to Nola, but things unravel so disastrously for him that his desire to remain a part of the world that he covets eventually takes over his instincts, which leads to several shocking events. A lesser film may have simply framed the two characters as two self-centered people plotting their way out of relationships that neither wants to be in, but Allen steers the film away from convention and into commentary in its final act.

There is one minor disappointment in Match Point, though. The film concludes with music from an opera, yet Allen fails to make the direct connection between the opera the characters in the movie watch and the one from which he has selected for the closing credits. Match Point is Allen’s broadest and most engrossing work in years, yet he may have missed an opportunity to make a thematic connection for a portion of moviegoers who may typically bypass his films.

Match Point contends that life’s grandest triumphs are just inches away from being life’s greatest tragedies. The degree to which Chris plots his future is Allen’s way of conceding that there may be some strategy or method to how the elite rise or how any of us can attain what we want. But more than that Match Point examines how all of what we want in life can depend on the simple bounce of the ball or the mysterious powers of fortune, of which we have so little control.

Grade: B+

Movie News and Notes

Entertainment Weekly has reported that Brokeback Mountain has earned $32 million, far exceeding Hollywood’s box office expectations.

The magazine also reported that The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is pulling ahead of King Kong, the Peter Jackson remake.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the five highest-grossing films in 2005 are as follows:

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith $848.5 million
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire $867.3 million
The Chronicles of Narnia $585.5 million
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory $474.5 million
Wedding Crashers $285.3 million

Oliver Stone has directed World Trade Center starring Nicholas Cage and Michael Pena, who portray Port Authority officers trapped beneath Ground Zero rubble. The film is set to be released in August.

Paul Greengrass, who directed The Bourne Supremacy, has directed Flight 93, a drama about the United Airlines jet that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.

Wolfgang Peterson (Troy, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, and In the Line of Fire) has directed Poseidon, which stars Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, and Richard Dreyfuss.