Match Point

(2005—Woody Allen —UK/Luxembourg) Are the most significant events in our lives determined by dumb blind luck? Well, yeah, we guess so. So says “Match Point,” also. This film is quite different from the work Usually done by this director. (The way his career has been headed, that’s quite a good thing.) The film is totally engrossing for its scenes of London society, London museums, London row houses, London restaurants and the loverly interiors of huge English country homes. Also engrossing is the relationship between the two primary couples in the film. Chris Wilton plays the charming tennis pro who falls in love with English society girl played by Emily Mortimer. Tom Hewett plays her brother and Scarlett Johansson plays her brother’s girlfriend, Nola. Nola is an American wannabe movie actress. The story is about the lower-class tennis pro who tries to make it big in London society: a sort of English Gatsby, if you will. He marries well but then has an affair with his brother-in-law’s ex-wife. The tension in the first two-thirds of the film revolves around whether and how the tennis pro will slide his way into the good graces of this London society. The tension in the last third of the film revolves around which side of the adulterous marriage situation he is going to come down upon— girlfriend or wife— just as the tension in a tennis match can revolve around which side of the net a ball that hits the tape comes down upon. In the tennis match, as in this movie, the outcome hangs on dumb blind luck and the spin of the ball (or plot.) The parallels between tennis match and movie plot are handled in sorta clumsy and heavy-handed ways, yet are Forgivable. The steps our tennis hero undertakes to resolve his adulterous marriage situation carry a totally unexpected spin. The steps he decides to take cost him dearly, and the final outcome of those steps is determined by dumb blind luck. As we sit here, we believe that the parallels between the tennis match and the movie are even more dull, wooden and heavy-handed than our writering of them here. Nevertheless and that aside, Caryl and Al both highly recommend Match Point. (2 hrs 4. Rated R for some sexuality.)