Match Point (2005)
I've tried for years to convince people my age to seek out a Woody Allen movie. Yes, that means occasionally praising his work in a review a bit more than perhaps some of them have deserved (I even gave a positive review to Curse of the Jade Scorpion a few years back, though I credit much of that to the fact that Woody himself introduced the film at the screening, and was in attendence while I watched; I'm sure that colored things a bit). So it's with a great deal of joy that I can finally (and honestly) say that Woody Allen has made a wonderful film, Match Point, that even ardently non-Woody fans will most likely enjoy.
For starters, Woody finally made a film outside of New York - something he hasn't really done since 1976's Love and Death took him to parts of Russia - and the change of setting (and accents) seem to have freed him up a great deal. There's a certain confidence and eroticism to the film that is usually quite absent, intentionally, in most of his work, and there's a feeling of modernity (computers and cell phones!) as well. Watching Match Point you'd be hard pressed to believe that the same writer/director made both this film and any of his previous five films, a fact which most critics have used to praise Allen for his bold step, at age 70, into contemporary filmmaking.
Of course, this presented a whole new kind of dilemna for me, having been a huge fan of his for so very long. You see, in Match Point most of the things I enjoy about Allen's films are entirely absent - there's no neurotic monologues, throw away jokes, not even a standard "Woody Allen Role" in the film - and as a result, it certainly doesn't feel like an Allen film. Yet, it's a remarkably intriguing and perceptive one - recalling the serious sides of Crimes and Misdemeanors - and thus manages to satiate the part of me that has enjoyed watching Allen's characters grapple with moral and societal issues throughout the years. In that sense, at least, Allen fans won't find themselves disappointed with Match Point either.
The film tells the story of Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a former tennis pro from Ireland who has recently moved to London in order to find some work as an instructor among the upper class of English society. He quickly hits things off with Tom Hewitt, a wealthy twenty-something socialite he teaches, and is soon invited to meet the entire family. He further ingratiates himself into the family's inner circle when he strikes up a relationship with Tom's sister, Chloe (Emily Mortimer), and the two begin to date exclusively. Tom is rather fond of Chloe - and quite pleasantly overwhelmed with how many doors the family's money and influence can open for him in London - but he also can't seem to keep his eyes off of Tom's fiancee, Nola (Scarlett Johansson).
One evening, the emotionally distraught Nola - a struggling actress that the Hewitt family frequently looks down upon with disapproval - runs out of the house after a particularly nasty comment about her career. Chris notices her through his window and chases after her into an open field. Apparently overcome by passion, the two give into the moment's lust and sleep together. Obviously, this complicates things a bit. Chris soon becomes obsessed with Nola - as opposed to merely content with Chloe (a familiar relationship theme in Allen's films) - and this leads him to make a series of bad decisions that escalate slowly from the merely unwise to the nearly unthinkable, a build-up of tension and inevitablity that Allen handles with a remarkable sense of pacing and direction. It ain't exactly Hitchcock, but it's a lot closer than you'd think.
Previous News/Updates:
February 12, 2006: Match Point continues to do well, but don't forget that Woody has already wrapped up his next film, also shot in England and entitled Scoop. I started up a page for Scoop, which you can get to by going here.
January 31, 2006: Match Point was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. It's Woody Allen's 21st (!) overall nomination, but his first in nearly ten years (he was last nominated for Deconstructing Harry in 1997).
December 28, 2005: It looks like Woody's got a hit on his hands for the first time in a long time, and he's apparently done so by making a decidedly "un-Woody Allen" type of film. The film has been nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress (Scarlett Johansson). I'll get links to reviews, interviews, and articles up here over the weekend - Woody has been doing a lot of press for the film (which I'm still trying to get used to, considering he did virtually none for so very many years) and even called Match Point the best film he's ever done in a recent interview. Personally, I can't wait to see it.
December 25, 2005: Match Point opened in limited release today, and has been getting incredibly good reviews from most major critics. I dropped the ball on updating things around here, and I apologize, but I'll be back in the next few days to get everything caught up.
November 2005: Apparently, Woody has already finished his next film (also shot in England), a romantic comedy entitled Scoop. Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman reportedly star. I'll work on getting a page up here for it some time soon.
September 2, 2005: Now to get caught up with everything else. The trailer is now available for download, click here to get to it. Apparently, there is no official Dreamworks site up yet - though the film is showing up in magazines like Entertainment Weekly and Premiere in connection with awards season. Looks like Woody might have a genuine hit on his hands.
September 1, 2005: Well, for starters, it looks like Match Point will be opening in limited release in the US on Christmas Day. Expect it to spread to more theatres at the beginning of 2006...
August 31, 2005: Sorry, I've been away for a bit (grad school and work kept me quite busy!), and so now I'll have to play catch-up, because I know there is a ton of new Match Point information that has come out in the past few months. I'll try and get on top of it soon.
May 14, 2005: Positive reviews and overwhelmingly good buzz continue to swirl around Match Point at the Cannes Film Festival. American and European critics alike are hailing it as a triumph for Woody; Tood McCarthy (Variety) declares it a "well-observed and superbly cast picture...the filmmaker's best in quite a long time." Though the film is showing out of competition - and is thus not able to compete for the Palm d'Or - it has reportedly set off a bidding war, as the film appears to be the most commercial he has made since Hannah and Her Sisters nearly twenty years ago. "It's commercial, it will wrap audiences in its grip, and yet it's a Woody Allen picture."
May 13, 2005: Match Point had its world premiere yesterday at the Cannes Film Festival, with Woody and the cast in attendance. Roger Ebert is the first to publish any report of the film, gushing: "...it was sexy all right, and violent. It was also literate, hard-edged and seductive in its story of an Irish tennis pro who settles in London, marries the boss’s daughter, impregnates the former girlfriend of his new brother-in-law, and then grows desperate at the thought of losing his big job and chauffeured car and the weekends in the country." To read the full essay, click here.
April 23, 2005: Woody Allen appears to actually be proud of his latest film - a rare thing, to say the least - and apparently it has a good deal to do with Scarlett Johansson's performance. As reported by www.imdb.com, Allen recently said of Match Point: "I'm very bullish about it and I'm usually not. I usually want to crawl into the ground after I make a film, almost invariably, but I'm very bullish about it because Scarlett Johansson is such a strong actress."
April 20, 2005: Match Point is officially set to have its world premiere at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival next month!
April 15, 2005: An interesting interview Woody Allen recently did with the British paper The Guardian about his latest film (set in London) can be found here.
March 16, 2005: A great new Woody Allen interview recently appeared at ComingSoon.net, and includes plenty of information about Match Point. If you want to give it a read, click here.
January 20, 2005: Brief mention of working with Woody in a recent interview with Scarlett Johansson:"On the first day I was working with Woody Allen, I was really, really nervous. I didn't know anything about him except that I adored his work..."
January 14, 2005: Why I Love London (an interview with Woody Allen, Nov 2004)
December 2005: Surprisingly (for Allen), his latest project already has an official title, and a plot synopsis has leaked out. According to Brit Films, the plot is as follows:
"Chris Wilton, a young tennis instructor, becomes involved with a wealthy family, one member of which he's teaching tennis. This leads to his rise in the world of upper class people and his subsequent romantic involvement with two women. A clandestine affair follows, leading him into a ever deepening quagmire until the only way out for him is to contemplate doing away with one of the women. This story is romantic, socially critical and suspenseful in a Hitchcockian way. The ending will come as a surprise."
Other than this, we know very little about the film, except for some of the cast list. Rumor has it that Woody himself might be making an appearance in this one, though it's unsure just where he would fit it, character-wise, and Jonathan Rhy-Meyers stated in a recent interview about the film: "It�s not a comedy, it has nothing to do with comedy � and Woody Allen does not appear in it." As of now, the confirmed actors in the film are Brian Cox, Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, and Emily Mortimer. Apparently, Kate Winslet was originally set to star, but backed out for personal/family reasons before shooting started.
If you have any additional information regarding the film, please feel free to send me an email, so I can continue to update this page. Thanks.
Last updated June 2, 2006
