novagirl11 When I started watching this, I actually thought I might have seen it before, but as the story progressed, I realized I definitely had not! I usually don't like Woody Allen films, so I guess this was not an exception, but at least it wasn't supposed to be funny (I don't laugh at his comedy either). The characters/acting are a bit unrealistic, unbelievable, and difficult to relate to.

thirtysevenpoop Match Point, or, Crime & Misdemeanors, Except I Changed Like 4 Things, And the Mistress is Really Hot This Time

alexdeleonfilm Woody Allen's "Match Point" at 53rd San Sebastian in 20052EE648C9-20F9-4C8F-8452-7DC284AC5808The dominant theme at the festival this year was Hitchcock with Hitchcock imagery everywhere celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Master of Suspense. Though there actually are no films by Hitchcock on view, several films are in a way a homage to the master. "Match Point", the latest from Woody Allen is a vast departure from his usual form and is, in effect, a Hitchcockian suspense thriller filmed in London no less, with an entirely English cast except for a smashingly sexy Scarlett Johansson in a most uncharacteristic vamp role, as the sole American presence – (and what a presence she is!). Young Scarlett really sets the celluloid aflame in this stylish shot out of Mr. Konigsberg's Twilight Zone, with savvy support from Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the freaked-out lover-killer who in the end will go unpunished.... No sidewalks of New York, no neurotic Jews, no sly jokes and one liners, just a straightforward English psychodrama made with such aplomb you would never guess it was a Woody Allen film if you missed the opening credits. In a way it does hark back to Woody's Crimes and Misdemeanors, but only because of the theme of getting away with murder. Rhys is a professional but impoverished tennis instructor and bald faced social climber with clients in high society. His character marries into a wealthy family, but his social position is threatened by a steamy extra-marital affair with his new brother-in-law's girlfriend, played by Johansson. When Johansson claims to be pregnant and insists that he leave his wife for her -- which would bring down the whole world he has strived so hard to attain - she signs her death warrant. Rhys goes to her apartment, shoots her to death (in a shocking sequence) and makes it look like a robbery to obtain drugs. The rest is a cat and mouse interrogation by a Scotland yard detective with echoes of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. His skin is saved by a twist of fate similar to a tennis ball suspended momentarily on the net which could fall either way. This is, of course, the Match Point of the title. Instead of a tennis ball we have an incriminating ring from the scene of the crime which accidentally gets dumped onto the ground after teetering on a rail by the river where Rhys is disposing of other evidence from the scene of the crime. We find out that the ring was picked up by a junkie who got killed but now appears to be the indisputable culprit who killed Johansson. Case closed. Our anti-hero gets away with murder. Everything handled just right by Allen to produce a tight thriller with the kinds of twists and turns that mirror Hitchcock to a tee. Not only is this a. "return to form" for Woody, but a venture into fresh new territory -- straight drama with not a single laugh --and done like an expert born to the cloth. Most enjoyable film with an entirely new Scarlett Jo! as an astonishingly sexy femme fatale.

dragokin Woody Allen is amazing in the sense that he writes the same story for decades with slight discrepancies and varying plot twists. Therefore it is no surprise that once in a while these stories would resonate with any viewer. In the case the viewers have the patience to watch them all, that is.Anyhow, Match Point is one of my favorite Woody Allen movies. For some reason it struck a chord, whether it was the circumstances i was in or the situation it depicted.At the time i was interested in business in a broad academic sense of the word. An the fact that a business degree might merely be a ticket to ride the train of the big bucks has been underlined by the movie. The main protagonist enters that world due the fact that someone with a position liked him, not because he has any knowledge about anything relevant.The impending global financial crisis that ensued a couple of years after this movie was one of those moments where viewers might even claim how Woody Allen predicted it all.On a more basic level, the sexual tension between Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Rhys Meyers and his ambivalence towards Emily Mortimer were depicted amazingly. Otherwise some thoughts on crime and punishment are showcased, a somewhat omnipresent motif in Woody Allen's work.To sum it all up, if you like the movies by the same author, you'd like this one. Otherwise you might be looking for another movie...