Film Reviews

Match Point

• Rating:
• Director: Woody Allen
• Starring: Brian Cox
• Details: UK, 124 mins, 15s.

Chris Wilton (Rhys-Meyers) is an ambitious young man trying to make his own way in the world. Taking a job as a tennis coach at a posh London club, he is introduced to the rich Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode); through him, Chris falls in love with his pushy sister Chloe (Mortimer). Things go swimmingly for a while until Chris meets Tom's fiancee Nola Rice (Johansson) - an out of work American actor. They pair embark on a highly-charged sexual relationship that continues long after Chris marries Chloe. But when Nola becomes pregnant, Chris has to choose between the good life in the Hewett's bosom and true love with Nola.
There are many things that make up a Woody Allen picture that are missing from Match Point. First up is the absence of New York (this is Allen's first movie outside of the Big Apple) and second, and most obvious, is the lack of empathy any of his characters have. His upper-class English socialites are devoid of any personality and his lead, Rhys-Meyers, is simply unbelievable. What Match Point's saving grace is its homage to Hitchcock. Rhys-Meyers is very much in the mould of classic Hitchcock anti-heroes such as Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo or Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief - a suave gentleman who can be shockingly ruthless if required but Chris' character is too one dimensional and his supposedly Cork accent is more Kensington than Douglas. Johansson is a warmer, huskier and altogether fleshier version of the classic Hitchcock heroine - Grace Kelly, Kim Novak. Matchpoint is far from Allen's best but has a certain charm.

Review by Gavin Burke