‘Match Point’ is a despicable failure
To be fair, there are some serious spoilers ahoy.
Crippled by his long-gestating cynicism, Woody Allen’s Match Point is his most bleak and fatalistic film. His 35th feature is an overwritten farce embroidered with greed and betrayal, punctuated by the murders of three innocent people. (One of them is the killer’s unborn child.) Match Point may not be a comedy, but it has the punchline of a long, cruel joke.
The movie is about an Irish-born tennis pro (the brilliant Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) who infiltrates a wealthy British family. He marries the sister of one of his clients, then has an affair with his brother-in-law’s fiancée (Scarlett Johansson). Match Point pretends to be about class and passion, but is actually about the supposed hopelessness of modern life, and Allen is smug and self-satisfied in his non-observation.
Meyers and Johansson make a super-sexy couple, and the movie is great to look at. But that Match Point isn’t an Anything Else-level embarrassment doesn’t strike me as sufficient explanation as to why an apparent majority of the world’s otherwise level-headed critics are heralding the arrival of a diatribe as bitter and lazy as this one. (If its aim is to illustrate the cold injustice of the real world, why make the detectives such caricatures?) Allen’s empty-headed morality play threatens to upstage Hostel in its brutality, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake in its ugliness and inhumanity, and is put to shame by the prevailing optimism of both.
Area showtimes for ‘Match Point’ [DDN]
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Movies
Comments
By mike
February 10, 2006 5:21 PM | Link to this
One thing that made me furious at “Match Point” is that the police work is cartoonish when the rest of the movie isn’t. Anyone for DNA testing? Or at least an autopsy of the victims? But I’ve always been a Woody Allen detractor. I think I liked “Manhattan Murder Mystery.” But that’s about it.By Jonathan
February 10, 2006 5:38 PM | Link to this
Zack - As you admit, you are certainly in the minority when it comes to MATCH POINT. The handful of people who saw the film in today’s early screening really thought it was wonderful…as have many, many critics.By BERNIE RABINOWITZ
February 10, 2006 5:47 PM | Link to this
YOU SHOULDNT BE REVIEWING MOVIES MATCHPOINT IS BRILLIANTBy Zack
February 10, 2006 6:11 PM | Link to this
Jonathan: Despite my loathing, I half-heartedly encourage people to see the movie, just because it’s so widely talked about, so well acted, and the first hour — before Woody makes his point — is pretty enjoyable. Still, I echo Armond White’s advisory that you “watch your back” around anyone who likes it.By Shiv
February 10, 2006 11:11 PM | Link to this
Despicable failure? You just may be as overdramatic as old Woody. While far from his best, this was an enjoyable, if not slightly overlong, film. Maybe you should watch your back — I may be sick and stressed, but I can still sass with the best of ‘em. :-)