[Movie Review] Match Point

[BouncingSoul]

Match Point is great. Saying anymore will probably give away the story but I'll do my best. The whole point of the movie is spelled out in the first minute when the main character says that its better to be lucky than good. What follows is a series of events that in any other movie you know how they would play out before they even happen. Nothing of the sort happens here. Instead through luck a failed Tennis pro gets an instructor job, that leads to another job, a marriage, an affair and a crime that no one catches on. Its such an odd take on a basic story that its really refreshing. The movie is perfectly cast (Scarlett Johansson is even more gorgeous then ever) the dialogue is sharp but you would expect nothing less from Woody Allen. All in all I'd call this a tie for best movie of 2005 with Capote.

5/5 OSNN Stars

 

[NetRyder]

I watched this in December when I was in NYC.
Great movie, indeed. I really enjoyed it.

 

[Sazar]

I watched this movie over the weekend and I have a few mis-givings.

No doubt the movie is well made, no doubt the characters are well fleshed out and no doubt that the performances are more than adequate, especially scarlett johansen's.

But I have a major gripe based on the opening sequence and the events that unfold afterwards.

We hear the narrator (rhys meyers) say it is better to be lucky than good and yet he clearly shows it is better to be devious and coniving than lucky.

Spoiler

Luck has some to do with what happened but seriously, what happened to the femme fatale (how the hell can you call her a femme fatale movie critics?) and her neighbor was hardly luck.

I enjoyed the movie but I was left wanting and I was actually sickened a little by the dark turn this movie took and the grave flaws that the main character had, without consequence. That was not luck.

 

[BouncingSoul]

Sure it does .... Bad luck. Wrong place at the wrong time, that sort of thing. Even the police determined that in their investigation. Plus being devious is one thing, but in most movies the devious guy raises suspicion of the other characters. They in turn investigate him and he's caught, this guy raises suspicions but through one lucky break or another no one digs too deep.

Spoiler

Consider the scene near the end where he unloads the weapon, his wife goes looking for him and just before she finds him she's called away and he's allowed to continue.

The main character is definately a flawed piece of work. But he's no worse than Christian Bale in American Psycho. In fact he's far, far nicer.