a portrait of elite society, and the hangers-on who wish to penetrate it, made in an surprisingly accessible way... you feel as if you’ve stepped into one of those posh magazine ads

Kathmandu:

Sheer brilliance best describes Woody Allen’s Match Point — his critically acclaimed “come back”, film after a string of flops. Match Point has it all — beautiful people, a plot that combines luck, intellect, ambition, suspense, love, sex, violence and a fabulous ending.

Critic Bret Fetzer writes, “The passion of mad love and the cold calculations of social climbing collide in Woody Allen’s Match Point. Former tennis pro Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) stumbles into good fortune when Chloe Hewett (Emily Mortimer), the daughter of a wealthy businessman, falls in love with him. But when Chris meets Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson), a much deeper passion is stirred — and his desire isn’t deterred when he discovers that Nola is already dating Chloe’s brother. But when their affair threatens Chris’s increasingly cozy lifestyle, Chris begins to consider a drastic solution.”

Adds Hollywood opinion maker Peter Debruge, “The trailer for Match Point ends with a shocking twist: the words ‘From Director Woody Allen’. Every audience gasps because the preview they’ve just seen looks nothing like a Woody Allen movie. The movie ends with a twist, too — a wry little joke where Woody gets the last laugh after a perfectly earnest thriller. Woody’s a master wordsmith, and here he’s crafted a bit of audience-friendly fare that’s smart without feeling exclusionary. It’s a portrait of elite society — and the hangers-on who wish to penetrate it — made in an surprisingly accessible way. Watching Match Point, you feel as if you’ve stepped into one of those posh magazine ads set in England where well-groomed young people lounge about idly in designer clothes and perfectly pressed slacks. It’s an aspirational world not without its charms, and most audiences, like Wilton, can’t help but feel an outsider to such comforts. It also helps that the movie is so d*** sexy, a word I never thought I’d use to describe an Allen film. The ‘hero’ passively lets things get out of hand, allowing ‘luck’ to excuse his own avarice. But he has a point. If there’s something to be said for luck, it’s that one has to make himself available to it. You don’t win the lottery by not playing, just as you don’t land the opportunity of your dreams by locking yourself indoors. And our hero, like Woody, knows how to play the game.”

And talking about luck, Woody Allen seems to have a lot of it: he says, “I think it turned out to be the best film I’ve ever made. Everything just fell in for me: I needed Scarlett Johansson, I got her. I needed Jonathan Rhys Meyers, he was available. I needed a young guy to play the (Tom Hewett) part, Matthew Goode walked into my life. Brian Cox was available. Emily Mortimer was available. I needed it to rain, it rained. I needed a sunny day, it was a sunny day. It was just incredible. It was like I couldn’t screw myself up no matter how hard I tried.”

Johansson concludes, “I feel like I’ve had the opportunity that’s one in a million. To be able to do what I love to do and get paid to do it. I feel incredibly lucky, especially when I know, I started off auditioning all the time; and it’s just, the masses of people, they call them cattle calls. You go in for a job, and you feel very lucky when you get a job.This is the point in the film, it’s scary to think that when you’re looking at a concept like destiny, all of the choices that we think we’re making, to take the road less travelled, is really not in our hands.”