Match Point

Director: Woody Allen
Year Released: 2005
Rating: 3.0

I heard so many negative things about this from friends who know a wee bit about movies that I was hesitant to bother with it, but after watching I can say without reservation that I think it's Woody's best film in close to a decade. It's certainly not without flaws and self-indulgent (the screenplay is given to being repetitive at times - mostly the Jonathan Rhys-Meyers/Scarlett Johansson confrontations), but I'm confident there's proper build-up to the exquisite Hitchcockian finale, which is fiendishly clever (the movie always feels like it's about to careen off a cliff any second, but somehow stays balanced and focused). I never considered drama to be Allen's strong suit, so maybe changing the location from New York to London was a factor (maybe he found the gloom inspirational, maybe not). It bears noting that even a twenty-something like me can appreciate a seventy-something director's musings on how life is so much more luck than talent - it's not pessimism, it's the honest truth ... or, at least, it sure feels like that sometimes.