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  • Match Point - Director Woody Allen
    by Zettel at 00:15 on 09 January 2006
    A new movie genre – the Les Dawson movie. In order for Les to play the piano so hilariously badly he had to be a very skilled pianist capable of playing well when he so chose. Similarly Woody Allen with Match Point. But sadly it seems not only does Woody believe he is ‘playing’ well in this movie but the weakness of the writing, editing and directing is clearly unintentional. This movie is so poor on almost every level it is tempting to mock it. Unmercifully. But if you love movies, and I do; and admire talented people of whom there are many in Match Point, not least Allen himself, that would be unworthy and pointless. Especially as I have never written, directed or made a movie myself.

    But, out of respect for other genuinely valuable work by all participants here, I have in truth to say this is for me the worst movie with which any of the actors and Woody himself have thus far been associated. Almost all movie disasters begin with the script. Before writing this review I had one fact to confirm - that Woody wrote it. I would have bet money on it and would have won my bet. This talented Director has an acute ear for the vocal rhythms of New York and the cadences of the elusive sprite of its wit and irony. Yet here he has a tin ear for English English and the realities of our social mores especially those of the filthy rich, non-aristocratic privileged classes in Blair’s supposedly meritocratic Britain. The silly arse, weak-chinned, Sloany stereotypes of the Hewett family and friends in Match Point may play well to the prejudices of middle America but to real English ears, even those who might like the stereotype so as to mock it – it clunks. This self-conscious, at times risibly portentous dialogue plays like a deep sea diver trying the high jump. Even the enormous amount of acting talent on display cannot breathe credibility into such tosh. It takes a lot to defeat Penelope Wilton or James Nesbitt, two of our finest actors, yet they look embarrassed as they try to make this stuff work. Oh Woody, why didn’t you ask a real British writer to look at the script? Or do people around you now deny present reality out of respect for a glorious past?

    Even Allen’s usual mastery of the basics of filmaking seem to have been lost overboard somewhere in mid-Atlantic. The film looks at times as if it was edited with garden shears. Some abrupt cuts with no dramatic purpose seem to be almost random and overall the editing just doesn’t flow at all. Those who hoped Woody’s much hyped love of working in London would make Match Point his English ‘Manhattan’ will seek vainly for any images of London that linger in the mind for a second. The plot is I am afraid just plain silly. Characters we really do not give a damn about act in utterly implausible ways to further a thriller narrative that raises the eyebrows in disbelief rather than tightens the chest in suspense.

    To make Scarlett Johanssen look frumpy seems an act of almost perverse genius. But clad in underwear that looks borrowed from the Bridget Jones wardrobe of industrial strength bras; and knickers only Hugh Grant could find alluring, the sex scenes are a mixture of unsympathetic filming and actorly embarrassment. For one shot of the voluptuous Johanssen behind in an early scene in a cornfield I suspect Woody will never be forgiven either by Scarlett or her legions of male admirers.

    Johanssen is perhaps the most charismatic actress of her generation; Jonathan Rhys-Meyers showed great potential in Bend it Like Beckham; Penelope Wilton’s range and talent matches any of our Theatrical Dames; and Brian Cox has graced so many movies I’ve lost count. And Woody Allen has made at least two of the great movies of the last 40 years plus many others of real style and wit. But their combined efforts cannot make this dog of a movie play. No one could. It must have been there on the page to see Woody, someone should have had the courage to tell you.

    As artists, I like and admire almost everyone associated with this movie. But it simply isn’t enough. This is a dead parrot and no amount of nailing it to its perch with mealy-mouthed reviewing will make it stand up.
  • Re: Match Point - Director Woody Allen
    by Cornelia at 18:48 on 24 January 2006
    Zettel, I usually find your views chime with mine, but I must take issue with you on this one, and say I found the portrayal of the upper-crusters entirely credible and the film a demonstration that the director has returned to form.

    Penelope Wilton and Brian Cox have had enough practice in the roles of gene-conscious aristo parents to establish their credentials,and I think you are confusing embarrassment with anxiety and bewildermment at an idiot son taken up with an American 'actress' and a daughter in love with her tennis coach. The son with the personality of a card-board cut-out was entirely acceptable, given our familiarity with the small-screen portrayal of Bertie Wooster, although with an unpleasant patronising edge that made the hero's toadying all the more unpleasant.

    I know some people have complained about the posh settings, but 'Four Weddings' and 'Sliding Doors' were much the same , with their boat races and restaurants and upperclass houses or fashionably-located flats. I thought the hero's tacky bedsit was accurate; most of the other locations are accessible to anyone who visits the odd stately home or follows a London Walks itenerary that takes in Mayfair and the NFT. I pretended I was going to buy one of those Albert Embankment flats once, so can vouch for authenticity as well as admiring from a cinematic point of view the way that Jack's first entry into the dazzling space was lit like a tennis court in August. (The asking price, in case you are curious, was £3.2m My face gave me away; 'Well, madam, what is exactly IS your budget?)

    For me the best sequence was the one depicting Jack's 'solution' to his dilemma - unbearable tension in the claustrophobic rooms and people seen in corridors or narrow doorways, as well as the previous furtive lurking in the basement of the big house within earshot of the family - marvellous use of space- and the scene at night in the bathroom, very remininscent of Woody Allen's earlier work where fantasy figures appear without warning to join in the action or comment on it. Do you remember Marshal McLuhan sudden appearance in the cinema queue in 'Annie Hall' ( I think) to give his support to the hero's side of an argument with a pretentious film buff behind him? I think I detected, too, a very pleasing 'homage' to Jean Renoir's 'Le Regle du Jeu'. I know it's clay pigeons in 'Match Point' , but Renoir is not the only director to draw a parallel between the aristos' love of shooting and their ruthless treatment of the not so well-off. It all adds to the irony when the outsider...again, I don't want to give away the plot. Again, the final scenes with the investigors have to be viewed through Allen's allusive eye to bring out the irony of the situation. Even here he twists the suspense, as he did with the frisson of recognition earlier, at the realisation of the 'threat 'encapsulated in the wedding-ring shot.

    A great director knows exactly how he wants his women to look and Johanssen was perfect for the role. She was supposed to be a drunken neurotic with poor taste nd no talent, the latest in a long line of Woody's mysogynist creations. I loved the scene where she reveals this is not the first, nor even the second time she has screwed up but now she's going down a different route. The rain scene in the garden earlier was meant to be ironic, again one of Allen's 'quotes' of heavy romantic drama. I don't know about charismatic - I saw her recently in the Cohen brothers 'The Man Who Never Was'. It must have been before she had the botox, and she looked like a bit actress in a B movie.

    I liked, too, the whole underlying philosophy of the working of chance, which has been the theme of so many of Allen's movies, brilliantly realised in the matching freeze-frame shots of the tennis ball and the wedding ring - a masterly stroke ( no pun!) and a great visual metaphor in a film with some thought behind it, as well as entertainment value. I am sorry you didn't see more of this yourself.

    Sheila

  • Re: Match Point - Director Woody Allen
    by optimist at 10:16 on 25 January 2006
    I just want to see this!

    Not sure I should after reading the review but we don't get the option in Hull!

    I just want to see Jonathan Rhys Meyers - it's not a lot to ask?

    sarah
  • Re: Match Point - Director Woody Allen
    by Cornelia at 14:09 on 25 January 2006
    I suppose it will come out on video soon. To tell the truth it wasn't much of a part for him - he just had to look bemused most of the time - at what the family were up to, his girl-friend's antics and when he had to diguise his own motives. I know it's been compared to a 'talented Mr Ripley' role, so you can understand that having to keep a straight face all the time doesn't exactly test the acting range.

    As for Hull, are you being kept as a prisoner? (Sorry if you are!)

    Sheila
  • Re: Match Point - Director Woody Allen
    by Zettel at 17:02 on 25 January 2006
    Sheila - we can't keep meeting like this!

    First thing to say I guess is that we learn more from our differences than our agreements. So vive la difference.

    On your points - I think you are quite right about what Woody was trying to do - it just didn't play for me. I thought Matthew Goode as Tom Hewett was rather good (sorry) but the whole social setting stereotyped and false. I don't read the Hewett's as real Aristo's at all but as filthy rich wannabees. These people have money because they pursue it ruthlessly and hold on to it tenaciously. The idea that Brian Cox's Mr Hewett would just dole out lumps of cash to a wrong-side-of-the-tracks tennis pro is just crazy. I love to poke fun at these people who know the price of everything (often because they set it) and the value of nothing but their influence is out of all proportion to their abilities and treating them as if they were just effete silly-arse Aristo's is just too easy and not I think realistic.

    Lots of cinematic homages as ever with Woody not least the Bergmanesque slow interior pans etc. But nothing they were used for was believeable for me. A personal thing perhaps.

    As for Scarlett. She was superb in Lost In Translation and luminous in Girl With A Pearl Earring (which didn't require her to do much it is true). However I said of her in LIT "This is being, not acting. Instinct, not technique, though she obviously knows what she’s about. Be gentle with this natural talent dear Directors, replace the uncertainty of instinct with the certainty of technique and you’ll destroy the magic". Well Ms J has now begun to 'act' a lot on screen and Woody's primary task was to stop her.

    Anyway - happy movie-going. we'll just agree to differ on this one. For me an absolute bow wow.

    Regards

    Zettel

    <Added>

    PS

    And worst of all - a pretentious one.

    Z
  • Re: Match Point - Director Woody Allen
    by Cornelia at 21:10 on 26 January 2006
    OK, Zettel. I see what you mean. We'll just have to agree to differ on this one.

    Sheila
  • Re: Match Point - Director Woody Allen
    by optimist at 10:00 on 29 January 2006
    Am I being kept as a prisoner? Not exactly...

    The nice man at Cineworld has emailed me and says Match Point will open here on 3 February!

    So I'm a happy bunny.

    For now.

    sarah
  • Re: Match Point - Director Woody Allen
    by Cornelia at 13:42 on 29 January 2006
    Sarah, excellent news for you. Hope you enjoy the film and look forward to reading your comments. On Friday I found some Odeon vouchers that expire on Jan 31st, so we are going twice this weekend. No hardship for me - I could go every day, which one of the reasons I live here, being a long-time refugee from the North. I envy you Hull Truck, but otherwise think I'd have to move from Hull. One of my oldest friends comes from Hedon but is hardly ever there, as she works abroad, so I've only visited a couple of times.

    Sheila