Match Point
Director: Woody Allen
Grade: B+

Midway through Match Point the question arose: would this film have been as impressive had Woody Allen not directed it? I wonder if the critical acclaim it received hinged on the fact that it represented such a departure from his past oeuvre. Although I cannot speak for other critics, I feel confident in saying that even had Match Point been helmed by any other director, it still would have been a work of magnificent skill.

Allen reveals his inspiration early in the plot, framing an extreme close-up of his main character, former tennis pro Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), reading Crime and Punishment. But Dostoyevsky isn’t the only muse prevalent in this project, in addition to channeling Hitchcock, his leading lady Scarlett Johansson appears to have breathed new life into the aging director. The film may focus on Wilton, but the true star of the show is Johansson as struggling actress Lola Rice whose sexual prowess sucks Chris into an affair that may provide him with more than he bargained for.

Although Lola could easily be categorized as a mere femme fatale straight out of Hitchcock’s Vertigo or Wilder’s Double Indemnity, Allen endows her with more vitality than that. Indeed our sympathies lie firmly with her plight rather than Wilton’s. Conversely, Chris’s character comes across as utterly pitiful – so fearful to own up to his mistakes that the thought of committing an unspeakable crime strikes him as less agonizing than confronting his wife about his indiscretion. I shan’t go further on that topic, however, so as not to spoil the ending. Although I’d argue Allen never intends the murder mystery aspect of his film to arrive unannounced. He drops numerous hints throughout that the only way this volatile situation can come to an end is through violence.

Allen uses tennis as a metaphor for what I’d call a social critique, specifically that moment during a match when the ball hits the net and whether it falls forward or slips back pivots entirely on luck. True enough, luck acts as the organizing principle here, but how can one ignore the difference in class between Wilton and Lola. Wilton may have worked his way up to reach his position, but now that he’s attained comfort, he’ll be damned if he’s going to give it up. Lola, on the other hand, suffers with failure. Consistently denied employment as an actress, she does what she can to get by. Her affair with Chris may be sordid, but we get the impression that her passion for him is authentic.

The film staggers somewhat near the end, breaking from character to allow deceased persons to spout perspectives that would have otherwise gone unsaid. It ruins the subtlety with which Allen establishes his conflict, instead cutting straight to the moral objective that should have been left to the audience’s deciphering capabilities. But it denotes a minor qualm, one that certainly does not prevent its greatness, but tarnishes it somewhat from being incontestably magnificent.

On a side note: one throwaway scene in the film stuck out for me. It occurs very early in the film, when Chris is still courting the woman who will later become his wife in the film. They attend a movie during which they talk loudly to each other and eventually initiate a thoroughly inappropriate make out session. Given my knack for sitting next boorish slobs who disrupt my movie going experience, I couldn’t help getting frustrated. I imagine Allen feels the same since he’s nearly as neurotic about watching films as I am (Annie Hall illustrated that). And considering he shares a knack for cameos with Hitchcock, to whom this film might serve as a homage, I’m surprised he declined to put himself in this scene as a disgruntled patron. Although it would have ruined the tone, at least it would have given a voice to a concern I’ve been frantic about all my life.