Match Point

Romance novel material. Or maybe even lust novel. After many years of not such good movies, Woody really needed the ball to fall on the right side of the net, even if it meant a drop shot. Moving the acting to London giving it a hint of Hitchcock won him the entire match. And as his following movies show, this was no swan song or stroke of luck. Thank god. (2008.12.26)

A brilliantly written and acted conversational drama, with an ending that, as you can see from the reviews here, many viewers will find hard to stomach. But it’s the denouement of the story, surprising, somewhat cynical, going against the established stereotypes, trampling on my idealistic soul, that gives the whole narrative the right poignancy (those for whom Columbo, Perry Mason or other detective stories are daily bread will probably be unpleasantly surprised). The only weakness I can see is the character of the detective, whose speech in the final five minutes (the way he suddenly gets up from bed or gesticulates comically when he reveals his theory) pushes the story to a kind of farce. But that's really just such a small blip on the beauty of the whole. (2006.09.24)

The "hard" cinematography and the narration going through an avalanche of dialogues with the absence of visual narration initially confuse the viewer, but the dream romance turns into a drama, then into a thriller, and the morality falls on its face into the mud. That’s quite an unorthodox way to go against the sunshine trend, which Allen does get to with a very shaggy insert from the detective office. However, it was probably all worth the feeling of Dostoyevsky turning uneasily in his grave a few times. (2014.08.22)

"So who will be my next victim? You?" Master Allen has found a new muse, moved to London - and shocked the whole world with a total change of genre. He shocked me too, but in the most positive way. Woody touches the conscience of all sinners and wrongdoers while sympathizing with them carefully. By not appearing in the film himself, he gives the viewer a sense of a personal masterpiece and perhaps even confession. At this moment, I feel like we haven't had such a masterpiece from him in a sea of years, especially in a more serious genre branch. Moreover, both the incredibly seductive Scarlett and the incredibly credible Meyers are going full force and make Match Point possibly one of the director's Top 3. (2006.12.16)

I like the love triangle according to Woody. I completely disagree that this isn’t a Woody Allen classic. It seems to me that it retains his style. And if he was improvising in a new direction, it was just an added bonus. What caught my attention was the Scarlett as a blackmailer and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a man who is incapable of arranging his life rationally. But I don't mind at all that he did it irrationally... at least that meant there was more drama. Crazy, but good. 4 stars. (2011.08.21)