Match Point (2006)

 This movie is terrific
Today movies are filled with super-heroes who are brave, witty, rich, selfless, handsome, possess super-human ability, loving, caring, warm. Spiderman, Die-hard, Batman, 007, Transporter, any Jackie Chen movie etc... There are countless movies with these heroes. These movies are popular because we want to be these heroes. But are we all so childish and live in our dreams?? Do movies exist only to provide us 2 hours of sweet dream?? Not one of such heroes can possibly exit in real world in which we work and live everyday. We are all so much weaker, uglier, poorer and greedier.

This movie is so terrific because it shows so much the truth of human nature and the world around us. While showing the truth, this movie is not tedious because the main characters go through very dramatic destinies determined by chance, which is "possible", unlike the super-heroes. All those reviewers here who give this movie low rating are just childish and unable to realize the truth.

But maybe it is a good thing that many reviewers believe in good human nature and the ability to shape one's own future which is never affected by luck or chance. It is very American.
April 4, 2008

 I almost didn't rent this, but the ball fell on the wrong side of the net
Description: Jerk kills beautiful woman and their unborn baby to continue living in a great appartment.

Word: draggy March 11, 2008

 Horrible waste of time for both actors
I feel so strongly about this movie I had to review it. I love both main actors, and have loved them in everything they're been in. This movie made me like them less. I think the characters were supposed to be unlikable, but if that's the case, why am I watching a movie about two people I don't like? The story might have been interesting had I cared what happened to either of them. February 23, 2008

 Woody Allen plays a Patricia Highsmith game
The title of this film is "Match Point" which refers to the main character, Chris Walton's profession as a former professional tennis player. It also refers to chance or luck and how luck may direct our destiny and course of action. I also think the term Match Point may refer to Woody Allen playing a game that Patricia Highsmith plays so well in "Strangers on a Train" and "The Amazing Mr. Ripley" which is the game of determining under what conditions and stresses might an ordinary person commit a terrible murder.

The character of Chris Walton, played beautifully by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, is certainly typical of Highsmith. He is the handsome but talented man of humble beginnings who seeks the finer things in life and will actually reach the point where he will kill to maintain his lifestyle. He is coldly calculating with many social skills and a bright intellect. Thus when ultra-rich Chloe Hewett falls in love with him, he is only too obliging to be seduced and to marry this pleasant and gentle heiress. Yet he is driven by passion and obsession for his brother-in-law's girlfriend, Nola Rice, played perfectly by Scarlett Johansson.

The film does a good job of demonstrating how hot passions may come and go and are rarely the basis for sound decision making.

This is a different pattern than was seen in Theodore Dressler's An American Tragedy, though there are similar plot devices. In An American Tragedy, a young poor man is offered romance with a beautiful rich girl if only he did not have a pregnant girlfriend at the time. This is pure Highsmith since it is the desperations, the calculations, the lack of guilt, the cool cover-up, and the final lack of remorse that makes Chris more akin to Ripley.

Woody tries to throw us off the track by having Chris read Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and then refer to this book several times throughout the film. Woody even has the crime of passion involve an innocent land lady like is seen in Crime in Punishment. But the consciousness of Woody's main character is more Highsmith than Dostoevsky. He is sophisticated evil residing in a man of grace and beauty.

The plot is well constructed and logical yet never reveals too much. The viewer is really not sure how Chris will decide between his pregnant wife and his pregnant mistress or how he will work himself out of the terrible mess he has created. Woody creates a building tension and apprehension as the film moves to an unexpected climax.
January 14, 2008

 Just Awful
I am a Woody Allen afficianado but this movie was one I couldn't even finish watching. It was boring and painful, the characters were not believable at all. January 2, 2008

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