Film: Match Point

When I first saw the trailer for Match Point I remember being shocked when 'Written and Directed by Woody Allen' appeared on the screen at the end. I'm not a great lover of Woody Allen films, I tend to only see them if there's someone I like appearing. His last effort Melinda and Melinda (starring Radha Mitchell and Chloe Sevigny), which I saw on DVD, was decidedly average. I was hoping that 'Match Point' starring Scarlett Johansson would be different, but in the end it wasn't. The movie is set in London and it's a thriller, not what I would normally expect from a Woody Allen film. I saw it on a cold Saturday afternoon, with a fellow audience comprised mainly of a bunch of noisy people, who insisted on talking throughout, giggling and shouting out in suspenseful moments. My repeated attempts to quieten them with a 'Shhhh!', fell on deaf ears. Yes, they were largely teens.

I was expecting a Fatal Attraction type thriller, and Match Point is to a certain extent, but the sex scenes let it down on this score. They are vital for a film of this nature, but Woody appeared embarrassed by the sex scenes as no sooner did they start than we cut to the next scene. What would Body Heat, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Basic Instinct or Fatal Attraction have been like with cut sex scenes?

The first half of the film, which sets up the characters and the basic premise of the film was enjoyable, but things went downhill in the second half. The way the ending fits in neatly with the beginning and underscores the fact that some things are simply more luck than judgement was clever. However, that doesn't explain how someone can go from passionately loving someone to being capable of murdering them in cold blood.