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| Wednesday, July 1, 2009 |
| Match Point [2005] |
Written and directed by Woody Allen (2005)
Widely described as a celebration of the importance of luck over virtue, Mr. Allen's second film set in London is quite hard to classify as a particular genre film. The extremely snappy humor, the neurotic intelligent dialogue, the satirical social commentary or all the things we love about his popular films, are hugely absent. Yes, there is humor, but in a very dark unpleasant manner. There's social commentary, but with stark realism. There are plenty of intelligent lines; but they don't display New York neurosis, they're more like British cynicism.
Nola: Men think I'd be something very special.
Chris: And are you?
Nola: Well, no one's ever asked for their money back.
The film is so edging towards the fascinating mix of serious thriller and dark comedy, that Mr. Allen also excused himself from playing his usual neurotic character of his films in this one. Also, in most of his films the location plays a major role in the plot and setting the film's mood. Even in Scoop, his first film in London (and also his first with Scarlett Johansson), there are detailed outdoor shots and typical British settings. But in Match Point, the story rises beyond any particular geographical or cultural scenario.
The story, with its fine touches on nihilism and a certain mock-pessimism, is fascinating enough to keep the viewer glued to his seat till the end. The extremely dramatic last twenty minutes of the film clearly show Mr. Allen coming out of his usual and comfortable niché when it comes to designing a plot. The dialogue is one of the best written and makes the characters very real and easy to relate to.
Once again, Scarlet Johansson does an extremely good job as the struggling American stage actress Nola Rice, who describes herself - "I'm sexy, yes. But not beautiful." She's got a number of extremely good one-liners for her. She looks the character, speaks like her and acts like her too, all in her near-perfection. In Scoop, she had shown that she can also be a competent comedy actress. Here she returns to her usual self and does a very good job at it.
   Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, with his attractive British accent, plays the central character Chris Wilton, a former tennis player who admits that "The man who said 'I'd rather be lucky than good' saw deeply into life". He gives us a believable performance as a person torn between two women -- the extreme sex appeal of one he cannot resist while the other has a rich father who offers him a job in his company. Although I'd like very much to say that Rhys-Meyers underplays the character, with his face giving a strange blank expression most of the times, but I don't know... maybe that's the best expression a man can manage when he can't choose between forbidden passion and rational stability.
The supporting cast includes the usually perfect Brian Cox and Emily Mortimer, but Allen has a strange preference for mid-shots in this film. His few close shots only feature Johansson and Rhys-Meyers. So it is somehow difficult to comment on the supporting cast's performance except for the fact that they seemed perfectly fitting into the story progress.
One last thing must be mentioned and that is the film's music. The movie's whole soundtrack is entirely comprised of Classic opera ... most of which are 1910 old scratchy recordings by Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, without any digital remastering or improvement of recording quality. This successfully brings about a very eerie vintage film experience. And it fits so perfectly into the mood that you'd almost never miss Allen's general usage of his trademark San Francisco jazz.
A masterpiece. |
posted by Noisy Autist @ 2:41 AM  |
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