Match Point DVD Review

"MATCH POINT" reviews

DVD

MATCH POINT

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-05-05 15:31:58

Provider

DVD Review

Every time Woody Allen releases a new film fans pray he'll turn back the clock and reproduce the brilliance of such films as Manhattan, despite having done little of note in a decade. Match Point never hits those heights, but in swapping his beloved New York for London, Allen has at long last fashioned a movie that elicits more than a half-hearted shrug.

Scarlett Johansson, naturally, deserves some of the credit for her role as Nola Rice, an American actress who's struggling to make it on the London stage. She is engaged to Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), but has the hots for Irish social climber Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a former tennis pro who works as Tom's coach and is, understandably, equally fond of Rice. So fond, in fact, that they're soon at it like rabbits. Which wouldn't be a problem were it not for the fact that Chris is keen – very keen – to get his hands on the capital of Tom's father Alec (Brian Cox), whose daughter, Chloe (Emily Mortimer), has the hots for Tom...

Allen's use of London landmarks may be unimaginative (the Tate Modern, the Royal Opera House, Millennium Bridge... yawn!), but this is a thriller that is devilishly clever and adept at highlighting delusions of grandeur.