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Match Point (2005) Certificate 12

Match Point
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Rated 3.0 stars
Average rating
(55%)
 
Starring: Scarlett Johansson | Jonathan Rhys Meyers | Emily Mortimer | Matthew Goode | Brian Cox | Penelope Wilton | Paul Kaye | Anthony O'Donnell | John Fortune | Rupert Penry-Jones | Margaret Tyzack | Scott Handy | Selina Cadell | Colin Salmon | Steve Pemberton
Director: Woody Allen
Studio: WARNER HOME VIDEO
Run time: 124 mins
Genres: Drama
Languages: English
Hearing-impaired: English
Subtitles: English
Released: May 08, 2006

For the first time in his long career, writer-director Woody Allen takes his cast and crew to London, and the European location breathes new life into the normally Manhattan-centric auteur. Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars as Chris Wilton, a former pro on the world tennis circuit, with eyes set on a very different kind of prize. After meeting Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode) at an exclusive club, he becomes friendly with Tom's extremely wealthy family, including his powerful businessman father, Alec (Brian Cox) and his attractive sister, Chloe (Emily Mortimer), who is desperate to get married and have children. The only problem is that Chris has fallen hard and fast for Tom's fiancee Nola (Scarlett Johansson), an unsuccessful American actress from Colorado who just might share Chris'lustful feelings, a romantic entanglement that could get in the way of his master plan.

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USA Today

An often riveting drama set in London amid the lives of the rich and cultured -- highlighted by an operatic score. And it's proof that Allen, who many have dismissed with his last few forgettable films, is still a filmmaking force

Highest rated reviews

57 out of 77 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 4.0 stars

Gideon Wellins from Manchester, England, 20th January, 2006

After a middling career in pro tennis, Chris (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, slinky and reserved) has found himself employed as a tennis pro at an English country club. It is there he meets Tom (Matthew Goode), a playboy who introduces Chris to his wealthy and influential family, including sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer). Looking for a bump in class, Chris marries Chloe, but Tom's new fiancée, an American named Nola (Scarlett Johansson, in an ideal combo of sultry and disturbed), is what really sets his mind and loins wheeling. Instigating a rapturous affair with Nola, Chris embarks on a dangerous social journey that might threaten his perfect, respectable life. Woody Allen has been in a rut as of late. Finding that his comic timing has lost its tick ('Hollywood Ending,' 'Anything Else'), and his dramatic chops lacking urgency ('Melinda and Melinda'), 'Match Point' finds the filmmaker at a creative dead end. So, I guess it's time for a trip to England. 'Point' is one of the few Allen productions to be set outside of America (or New York City, to be more specific), and the change in scenery has really ignited the filmmaker's cinematic tools. That's not to say the picture strays far from Allen's traditional visual and aural trimmings, but the jump across the pond has given Allen an opportunity to try examining new personalities, class systems, and locales. Thematically, 'Point' has a lot in common with Allen's 1989 masterpiece, 'Crimes and Misdemeanors,' which, to some fans, might reek of stealing from himself. I can't defend Allen's questionable inspiration for 'Point,' but I do enjoy the filmmaker's continuing study of morality, and what part that plays in passion and critical decision-making. In keeping with the new surroundings, 'Point' explores the English class system and how it's the fuel that drives Chris's ambitions. Starting out as a lowly tennis instructor (with a history of failure), Chris soon begins to taste the high life with his courtship of Chloe, gradually climbing the ladder of money and respectability that's as potent and important to him as the sexual gratification he gets from Nola. Allen mines this material for everything it's worth, selling Chris's new life with gorgeous locations that take the viewer into impeccable London apartments and the rolling countryside of a holiday home (shot beautifully by Remi Adefarasin). He also adds an element that rarely rears its head in an Allen production: sexual heat. While far from explicit, the affair between Chris and Nola provides some sequences that are unusually frenzied, yet feel necessary to comprehend the carnal desire that keeps impeding Chris's good sense. In trying to keep in line with my critic code of ethics, I must stop here in describing Allen's scripted twists and turns; the final act of the film is runaway mine car of surprises, and keeps closely in line with the heavy opera backdrop of the story. 'Match Point' provides just enough reason to fall in love with Woody Allen again, with the auteur creating cracking good drama for the first time in a very long time, in a location that will hopefully relight the creative fires in him for years to come.

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26 out of 37 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 1.0 stars
Awful

A Customer from london england, 10th January, 2006

I've always loved Woody Allen films and also fell for the reviewers' hype. But this was just truly awful. Bad everything. I have to wonder if Woody has actually gone to see a movie in the last 10 years. The plot was substandard soap style, the dialogue phony, the characters cliche'd. And to make it worse the representation of London was unbelievably distorted. What a waste of time. Bleah!

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21 out of 29 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 2.0 stars
Implausable but watchable

Greenlove from London, 17th January, 2006

Tennis coaches do not get set up in major City investment houses with their own chauffeurs even if they are going out with the Chairman's daughter. I don't know anyone in the City who still gets called 'Sir' by their secretary. Londoners have other places to shop than Bond Street.

Apart from that there are some enjoyable plot twists and Scarlet Johansson is fantastic. If you're like me you'll be made to feel continually uncomfortable by being made to root for the bad guy - which is all quite clever I suppose.

James Nesbitt comes in like a breath of fresh air with an entertaining cameo, having said that anyone looks like a great actor next to the truly awful Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.

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21 out of 31 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 1.0 stars
It's A Woody Allen?

butters787 from from Salford, 14th January, 2006

Anyone would have a hard time noticing that it's actually directed by Woody Allen, it's totaly different, and not really in a good way. It could have been directed by any average joe director.

Towards the end the plot becomes just too unbeliveable and just generally stupid. Whatsmore, the way the British characters (pretty much all of them and in this case the upper-classes) is just too unrealistic.

Stick to the old classic Woody Allen films.

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Most recent reviews

Rated 4.0 stars
worth it

RamRez from , 9th March, 2010

surprisingly good... It makes me sad to think that there are actually people out there like this. Very entertaining and a FANTASTIC ending!

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Rated 0.0 stars
Match Point

Heike from , 28th January, 2010

Just a short one to explain the lack of stars from me: only watched the first 20 minutes - then abandoned because the story held no interest, the acting was totally rubbish, the directing was pants and the film in generally (the first 20 minutes) was very badly made. Just a bunch of half grown empty brained idiots. Maybe the next hour or so is better, but I lost interest. There are better films to watch out there.

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Rated 2.0 stars
Woody Allen at his most forgettable

C1LS56 from , 15th January, 2010

A friend persuaded me to put some Woody Allen films onto my list. The earlier ones are really strong, with well put together social and moral storylines, but I found this unremarkable. Very ordinary. I'd watch something else if I were you.

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Rated 1.0 stars
...that's 1 for Scarlett

Sebastian362 from , 25th October, 2009

Scarlett exposes Woody's mediocre story line, for exactly what it is......mediocre. Not sure, but there was something quite 'dream come true' about seeing Johnnsson with London as her backdrop. All characters believable, but not really sure if I left caring.

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