Movie Review: Match Point

With Match Point Woody Allen has broken out of his usual style of film making about neurosis to direct a movie which will have a much wider appeal. Match Point begins with a narrator explaining the moment when a tennis ball hits the top of the net on a match point, bounces up in the air, and could fall down on either side, changing the outcome of the game. This moment becomes the metaphor for the story we are about to see. Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a moderately successful tennis player who is sick of touring and decides to settle down in London. He becomes involved with Chloe (Emily Mortimer) who has a rich Dad. While getting to know the family, he meets Chloe's brother's fiancee, the sensuous Nola Rice (Scarlett Johanssen) and is deeply attracted to her. As their lives become more entwined, things get very complicated indeed until Chris has to make some very difficult decisions that lead to some unexpected consequences. Match Point is all about the role that luck plays in our lives. Just how much are our circumstances the result of our own actions or chance? With its controversial resolution, Match Point will give you much to think about. Golden Globe Winner: Best Picture Oscar Nomination: Woody Allen - Best Original Screenplay My Rating: ****1/2 (out of 5) Positive Review 'To call Match Point Woody Allen's comeback would be an understatement - it's the most vital return to form for any director since Robert Altman made "The Player."' - Owen Gleibermann/Entertainment Weekly Negative Review 'Match Point is a perfectly presentable, entirely unremarkable domestic melodrama parked queasily between opera and realism, two irreconcilable forms if ever there were.' - Ella Taylor/LA Weekly Content Warning some sexuality