Match Point (R, 2005)

Set in London, MATCH POINT focuses on Irish tennis pro Chris (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), who'd rather be lucky than good. He's bewildered by women, in particular by vivacious, sensuous Nola (Scarlett Johansson), an aspiring American actress. This even as he's engaged to be married to Chloe Wilton (Emily Mortimer), a bossy if occasionally sweet heiress, and Nola is dating Chloe's brother Tom (Matthew Goode). The British siblings are blandly self-absorbed and pleasantly ignorant, owing to their old money, while the outsiders want in. Chris' efforts to achieve his ambition grow increasingly nefarious. Chloe's father Alec (Brian Cox) takes a liking to Chris, but Chloe's mother, Eleanor (Penelope Wilton) disparages Nola, whose acting career stalls. Mummy's disapproval underlies Tom's own evolving diffidence; he ends up dumping Nola, while Chris commits to a career with Alec's company and a fancy church wedding with Chloe. Feeling "pressure" at home, Chris turns to Nola, their affair becoming more urgent, if not exactly passionate.

Grim and gloomy, Woody Allen's film is a noirish character study by Woody Allen, not a comedy and not for kids. Chris's slide into the standard soul-sucking vortex is not especially affecting. His thudding caddishness, lacking in conscience or compassion, makes his appeal to Chloe, who otherwise seems self-confident to a fault, seem odd, except for the fact that she's preoccupied with having a baby, that recurrent bane of Allen's women.

Because Chris is the indecisive, unhappy protagonist in a Woody Allen movie, you can pretty much guess what happens to him. Though Chris begins by asserting his faith in luck, he ends up adrift and haunted, without any "measure of hope for the possibility of meaning." Maybe it's just luck that the women around him -- irrational, demanding, and voluble -- come to represent that lack.

Studio: DreamWorks
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Emily Mortimer, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson
Genre: Drama
Run time: 124 minutes
Theatrical release: December 28, 2005
DVD release: April 25, 2006
MPAA Rating: R
MPAA explanation: some sexual content