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Thursday, 01 June 2006 00:00 |
Screenwriter-director: Woody Allen
Producers: Letty Aronson, Lucy Darwin, Gareth Wiley
Executive producers: Jack Rollins, Charles H. Joffe, Stephen Tenenbaum
Director of photography: Remi Adefarasin
Cast:
Nola Rice: Scarlett Johansson
Chris Wilton: Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Chloe Hewett Wilton: Emily Mortimer
Tom Hewett: Matthew Goode
Alec Hewett: Brian Cox
Eleanor Hewett: Penelope Wilton
The film undoubtedly will find a domestic distributor, but how his normal fans will react to the (mostly) comedic writer-director exploring such new territory is anybody's guess. The film certainly represents a marketing challenge in North America but might actually do better boxoffice in Europe.
The story is set in contemporary England, but it feels more like England several decades ago. It also feels like the work of an outsider, whose knowledge of the country, customs and class system derives from movies and novels rather than experience. Production designer Jim Clay's polished interiors and locations in the Tate Modern and other new galleries certainly make things appear modern-day. But Allen's tale of a poor Irish lad's social climbing via marriage and the beautiful American actress who comes between him and his wife feels distinctly retro.
Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a former tennis pro who leaves the circuit when he realizes he isn't good enough. He gets a job teaching tennis to wealthy clients at a posh London club. Here he meets Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), and they discover a mutual interest in opera. An invitation from Tom to join him in the family opera box allows Chris to meet Tom's sister, Chloe (Emily Mortimer), a pleasant and sweet woman, who quickly develops a romantic interest in the handsome tennis coach. Chris soon obliges her, more out of friendliness than any grand passion.
That passion does spark when he meets Tom's fiancee, the moody and provocative Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson). She drinks a bit -- most of the characters display fondness for alcohol -- so when Chris catches Nola in the right mood and moment, they have a fling.
Tom eventually jilts Nola, but by then Chris has married Chloe and landed a cushy job in her father's firm. Chloe desperately wants to get pregnant but has no luck. Fate has Chris run into Nola a year later. Their affair resumes, and soon -- and somewhat predictably -- the wrong woman gets pregnant.
Pressure builds on Chris to do "the right thing." But this would require his surrender of a luxurious lifestyle to which he has grown quite accustomed. He secretly borrows one of his father-in-law's shotguns. Like the adulterous ophthalmologist in Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors," Chris faces a moral dilemma: destruction of his life or murder.
Allen's key philosophical interest here is the notion that luck or fate plays a larger role in our lives than we believe and that justice itself is often a matter of luck. Certainly, injustice occurs more frequently.
Allen doesn't portray the characters with much depth. Chris, his protagonist, is the most detailed character, of course, but we never are sure what drives him. He more or less falls into his marriage and job; we certainly sense no burning ambition or steely determination that would lead him to contemplate such a radical act as murder.
Nola possesses plenty of sexual allure, but she never is seen taking advantage of it. If anything, it causes her much grief.
The Hewett siblings are nice sorts, neither overly impressed with their wealth nor abusive toward others. Their father (Brian Cox) and mother (Penelope Wilton) are vivid though light sketches.
Scenes involving Chris' business dealings and later police procedures feel inauthentic. So "Match Point" is a story designed more to prove a philosophical point than to examine a social milieu or a particular cast of characters.
Another factor might explain the sketchiness of these characters: In his movies, Allen explores so much character through comedy that when he denies himself funny lines or physical comedy, his characters lack dimension. They feel soulless, reacting more to the dictates of the story than to inner impulses and desires.
Production values, as one expects from a Woody Allen movie, are impeccable, with opera supplying the only music on the soundtrack.
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