Match Point

AMG Plot: A clandestine love affair sends one man's charmed life into a tailspin in this comedy drama written and directed by Woody Allen, his first film set and filmed in Great Britain. Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) is a tennis player who was just good enough to make his way onto the professional circuit, but not good enough to be a consistent winner. Looking for a more stable career, Chris is hired on as a resident professional at an exclusive tennis club by Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), who is as impressed by his charm and good looks as he is by his game. Chris's intelligence and wit also make a strong impression on Tom's pretty sister, Chloe (Emily Mortimer), who soon falls for him. It isn't long before Chris and Chloe are engaged to be married, a match that pleases both Tom and his father, Alec (Brian Cox), a successful businessman who believes Chris has a bright future in his firm. However, Chris has also caught the eye of Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson), a sexy blonde from the United States who is dating Tom. Nola makes no secret of her attraction to Chris, and he can't help but be drawn to her; the two quickly begin an affair, even as Chris and Chloe plan their wedding. Chris thinks good fortune has come his way when Nola drops out of his life shortly before his wedding, but a chance meeting a few months later brings Nola back into his life as he and Chloe try to start a family. Match Point received its world premiere in an enthusiastically received presentation at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. — Mark Deming

AMG Review: Match Point is the most consistent Woody Allen picture in about 15 years. Not since Husbands and Wives has he shown such detail to the simple craft of storytelling, and this is what should give hope to longtime Allen fans who might have begun to question how many good films the great director may have left in him. The film does not break new ground thematically, but simply by setting the film in London it feels fresh. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is cast well as Chris Wilton, a tennis pro always looking to climb up the social ladder. His inherently cold features help make the character more menacing than might have been intended. It lends the character a steely confidence when a different actor might have played the character more passively. Matthew Goode turns in a fine supporting performance alongside Emily Mortimer and the always reliable Brian Cox as the rich family Chris befriends. Nola Rice, the femme fatale, appears at first to be a familiar character in Allen's work — the emotionally erratic, sexually voracious woman. However, Allen smartly alters this stereotype in intriguing ways. Although the first scene overplays the character's hand, Scarlett Johansson brings an intelligence and a presence to the part the grounds it. She is beautiful, but she is not unstable. She is a three-dimensional person, not simply the personification of the lead male's erotic desires. The screenplay has a fatalism that will be familiar to anyone who knows Allen's non-comedies, a fact that bleeds some of the drama out of the third act of the film as many people will see how it is going to end. But good storytelling is as much about how events unfold as it is about how the story ends. Match Point offers the encouraging experience of a great director and writer rediscovering his muse thanks to a new city and new actors. — Perry Seibert