The Best Movies of the 21st Century (No 22): MATCH POINT (2005)

I debated this selection internally- kept removing it from the list and then adding it back. Ultimately, I am very comfortable with the choice. I rewatched the movie recently and it has aged well- a good reminder why I enjoyed it on first viewing 20 years ago. Woody Allen’s Match Point stands alongside Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters and Manhattan as one of his finest cinematic achievements. This may strike Woody Allen fans as bold, but I think the film earns this status through its moral daring and disciplined execution. I am curious as to how other movie lovers view this work. 

Made for 15 million, the film grossed over 85 million worldwide, becoming Allen’s most commercially successful work of the 2000s. The film received substantial awards recognition: an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, Golden Globe nominations for Best Drama, Best Screenplay and Best Director and multiple BAFTA nominations. Critics largely embraced it as a return to form, with major publications praising Allen’s departure into darker Hitchcockian territory. The critical consensus was clear: this was his best work since Crimes and Misdemeanours. I also observe that he has not equalled this recognition recently so Match Point is probably his finest film in the last 30 years of his career. Allen has also become a controversial cultural figure and it takes discipline to just focus on his moviemaking. His career has been uneven, but he has written and directed some very important movies. He is an industry icon. 

I appreciate Match Point because he escaped his usual crutches and tics, creating a narrative leaner more sinister than we have seen in earlier works. What makes this movie exceptional is everything Allen strips away- starting with New York itself. Forced to London by financing realities, Allen was displaced from his comfort zone and the geographical exile proved to be creatively liberating. Gone are the familiar neurotic rhythms of Manhattan, the beloved delis and bookstores, the intellectual dinner party patter, the characters walking through Central Park dissecting their anxieties and hangups. London’s aristocratic drawing rooms, country estates and modern art galleries demanded a different set of observational skills from Allen. Allen could not rely on his intimate knowledge of Upper West side geography and culture. He could not default to witty references to psychoanalysis or Jewish intellectual self depreciation. New York is the star of most of his films and it was refreshing to see a human drama in London- another civilised and sophisticated city, but very different its mores and idiosyncrasies. 

Equally important is there are no comedic subplots to undercut the tension and no Woody Allen clone struggling with his neuroses. The protagonist here, Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ Chris Wilton is handsome, athletic, calculating and sociopathic- as far from an Allen surrogate as imaginable. This distance gives the film an arms length, genuine moral ambiguity. In no sense is it autobiographical. Interestingly, the narrative doesn’t break new ground- its Theodore Dreiser’s “An American Tragedy” transported to contemporary London.  Chris Wilton is a former tennis pro from a working class Irish background who infiltrates British aristocracy by teaching tennis at an exclusive club. Tom Hewett, the carefree upper class son who never had to work for anything befriends Chris and introduces him to his sister Chloe, a kind but somewhat clueless women who becomes scientifically obsessed with getting pregnant. Chris also meets Nola, Tom’s American girlfriend- a struggling actress with confidence and ambition.  Chris marries Chloe for access and security, but almost immediately begins an affair with the more sexually magnetic Nola. She (Nola) becomes pregnant and threatens his carefully constructed life. Chris then commits murder and the movie examines how morality, good and evil and most importantly, LUCK, dictate human outcomes.  

Allen wisely leaves vague what Chris actually does for a living after his father in law hires him as an executive at one of his companies. We see the fancy car, the chauffeur and the luxury apartment. We never learn whether Chris has business acumen or skills- the implication is that competence hardly matters when you have married into wealth and privilege.  There is a moral hole at the centre of the story and Chris’s success appears to be entirely dependent on deception and luck. Allen uses opera as the musical backdrop of the narrative. The murder investigation meanders a bit and isn’t the strongest part of the movie. Ultimately, Allen doesn’t really judge Chris and he certainly doesn’t argue that justice always wins out. Chris gets away with his awful actions and the film suggests the universe is morally indifferent, even vacant. OUCH! 

The paradox here is that the film is utterly compelling despite its rather formulaic film noir structure. The reason is that Allen brought is greatest skill as a Director to the table here- casting the right actors in the right part. Actors love working with Allen and he has an instinct  for identifying talent that will light up his written characters on the big screen. He has always understood that actors elevate material and an ensemble can transform the familiar and  mundane into something electric and complex. The lead players in Match Point were perfectly cast. 

Jonathan Rhys Meyers brings genuine danger to Chris Wilton. His beauty contains menace. His previous starring role was in Bend it Like Beckham.  Match Point took him to another level, leading directly to his Emmy winning turn as Henry VIII in The Tudors.  He played a charming sociopath there as well. Sadly, personal demons have derailed his career but Match Point showed him at the peak of his powers. Scarlett Johansson was only 19 during the filming of Match Point and the movie established her as a serious actress, not just a sexy ingenue. She became the most commercially successful actress of her generation,  anchoring the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Black Widow and also established serious drama chops in Lost in Translation, Marriage Story and JOJO Rabbit. She has evolved into a major influencer, a box office titan and Woody Allen saw all of that coming when he cast her in Match Point. Emily Mortimer as Chloe, Matthew Goode as Tom, Brian Cox as Alec Hewitt and Penelope Wilton as Eleanor are all outstanding. We have seen Mortimer in The Regime and The Newsroom, Goode in Downton Abbey and The Imitation Game, Cox in Succession and Wilton in Dr Who and Downton Abbey. Match Point works not because Allen reinvents the wheel, but these actors make you forget you have seen this story before. The trajectories of the cast post 2005 suggest Allen’s eye for talent remains as sharp as his ear for dialogue. 

Match Point proves Woody Allen could make a masterpiece without any of his customary  trademarks.  It is a perfectly executed thriller, his most successful departure from type and a confirmation that he still had the skill to create something unique and genuinely great.  The movie is dark and amoral and it deserves place among his very best- and a place on this awesome WFM list!