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Parents' Guide to

Match Point

By Cynthia Fuchs, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Woody Allen film has adult themes, not for kids.

Movie R 2005 124 minutes
Match Point Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 16+

Based on 6 parent reviews

Guilherme Z.
Guilherme Z. Adult
May 23, 2018
age 18+

Best I've seen from Woody Allen

To me this is the best Woody Allen movie I've seen (seen about 15 by now), and I don't get why it is not always ranked amongst the top 5 on Woody Allen's lists on the internet. This is Dostoievsky with alternative ending. Very thoughtful.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much consumerism
charlotte M.
charlotte M. Adult
December 3, 2016
age 15+

Great movie but the ending is a disappointment.

The movie has a great twist and really sucks you into the whole plot of the whole movie. But then it ends in a very disappointing way.

This title has:

Too much sex
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
See all 6 parent reviews

What's the Story?

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.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (6 ):
Kids say (3 ):

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.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about Chris's ambitions: does he want to be rich? To feel passion? To feel lucky? How does the film compare instances of luck and talent? How is Chloe's desire for a child a problem for Chris? How do the outsiders (American Nola and Irish Chris) show their desire to get "inside" the upper class British family?

Movie Details

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