Given Woody Allen''s recent track record, no one saw "Match Point" coming. Sure, "Small Time Crooks" and "Curse of the Jade
Scorpion" were amusing, but "Hollywood Ending" was a disaster. People have been saying that Allen''s best work is decades behind him. And then there''s "Match Point."
"Match Point" is not a comedy. Nor does it look or feel like a Woody Allen film. Allen never appears in the movie, even though he wrote and directed it. About an affair that goes dangerously wrong, "Match Point" follows Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) as he moves up the social ladder, a la Becky Sharp. Starting out as a tennis pro at a prestigious London facility, he soon falls within the friendship of Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), a young man from an extremely rich family. Chris begins a relationship with Tom''s sister, Chloe (Emily Mortimer), but soon realizes he really has eyes for a struggling American actress named Nola (Scarlett Johansson) - unfortunately, Nola is Tom''s fiancée. While his relationship with Chloe turns to marriage, Chris and Nola''s love for one another develop to an even stronger level, but the affair threatens to destroy Chris and the entire Hewett family. With everything on the line, Chris must make a difficult decision to save everything...
Spellbound. I was absolutely spellbound while watching this movie. I was expecting a good little romantic thriller, but not an amazing drama that deserved its Golden Globe nomination. Strangely enough, I watched this movie the same day I watched "The New World" - my number one pick of the year. "Match Point" is a close second. I waited for more than a year to watch an award-worthy film, and was fearing I would see none for the year of 2005, but in the same day I saw my first and second picks. Needless to say, it was a good day...