Woody Allen’s previous film was “Melinda and Melinda,” a split-personality number that looked at a situation from two angles: one comic, one serious. Watching that picture, I couldn’t help thinking that Allen had come to the point where he’s a better serious filmmaker than comic.
Perhaps he’s come to the same conclusion, for his serious new movie, “Match Point,” is his best in years. Woody’s not in it, and neither are the laughs, but the film has a sinister tone and a deadly momentum that make it absorbing.
Allen appears to have been inspired by “An American Tragedy,” the classic novel that became the movie “A Place in the Sun.” We are in London – yes, the Woodman has left Manhattan for the moment – where a young tennis player, Chris (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), has played out his professional talent and is now looking for work.
He’s from a blue-collar background, so getting hired as the tennis pro at a tony private club is a bit heady. His lessons for an amiable upper-class chap named Tom (Matthew Goode) lead to an introduction to Tom’s unmarried sister (Emily Mortimer), and rapid assimilation into their wealthy family.
A happy ending would be easily in sight, were it not for the presence of Tom’s girlfriend, a smoking-hot American actress named Nola (Scarlet Johansson). Chris has his eye on the prize, on material success in the corporate world, but he just can’t get Nola out of his head. Thereby hangs misery and suspense.
The subject matter is not unprecedented for Woody Allen – the plot of this film echoes a storyline from “Crimes and Misdemeanors.” But there are still things in this movie that surprise; for instance, Allen has never had a protagonist like Chris, whose motives are secret and hidden, perhaps even from himself. The character seems less a calculating manipulator than an amoral drifter, ready to fill whatever vacuum comes along. He has impeccable self-control, but like many people with impeccable self-control, he has a single whopping weakness.
Filming in London seems to have engaged Allen as a director; “Match Point” has a busy use of locations, lusciously shot by cinematographer Remi Adefarasin. It’s a very “composed” movie – nothing slapdash or offhand about the way it looks.
The character played by Scarlet Johansson doesn’t really exist much beyond a plot device, which is a problem Woody’s had before with sexy-scary women. But Jonathan Rhys Meyers, with his wounded face and guarded manner (the Irish-born actor played Elvis in a TV movie last year), is unexpectedly compelling as our untrustworthy guide through this world.
Allen reportedly returns to romantic comedy (and to London) in his next picture. In the meantime, “Match Point” provides a highly watchable brief on a subject that was usually played for laughs in his comedies: Love can be murder.
Scarlet Johansson and Jonathan Rhys Meyers star in “Match Point.”
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