Mirror Magazine

Match Point Written and directed by Woody Allen
Starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer and Brian Cox

Nothing except for the credits would make you realise that Match Point is a film directed by Woody Allen. The iconic director has left his beloved New York for the gorgeous streets of London, and the sounds of jazz, which usually make up the soundtrack of his movies, have been replaced by opera.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays Chris, a former tennis pro, who now works as a tennis coach in an exclusive club in London. He soon becomes friends with Tom, the happy go lucky son of a very rich family. Chris’s impeccable manners and innocent good looks quickly make Chloe, Tom’s sister, fall for him. But trouble arises in the form of Nola, Tom’s American fiancée played by an absolutely sensual Scarlett Johansson.

Woody Allen begins the film with an explanation that tennis is part skill and part luck, and Chris lives his life according to that very idea. When Chloe (a wonderfully clueless Emily Mortimer) openly shows how attracted she is towards him, and wants to help him stabilise his income by getting her rich father to give him a job, Chris only very mildly rejects the idea, to quickly embrace it fully and enjoy the perks of being married to an heiress.

In Chris’s mind, his luck was to meet a rich and welcoming family. It does not take him long though to get bored with the quiet and gentle Chloe, who wants to marry him and become a mother. Nola is her complete opposite. She is sexy, unpredictable and is trying to make it as an actress. They fall for each other like magnets.

Chris is then forced to deal with a huge dilemma, leave Chloe and all his comforts, which he has become quite accustomed to, or settle for excitement and tempestuous love with a now pregnant Nola? Watch the film and you will know.

The wonderful thing about Match Point is that anyone can relate to the story, and you do not have to be a tennis pro or a millionaire to feel what the characters are going through.

Haven’t we all wished for financial security? Haven’t we all wanted the routine of marriage to disappear, and instead live a passionate love affair, even if it were to last only a moment?

Allen’s characters are so well-written and constructed that any of them could be you. A special plus point for Scarlett Johansson, who goes from confident sexpot to a vulnerable girl in search of love and commitment. The difference between you and the characters is simply how far you are willing to go to achieve what you want. It is chilling to see how the seemingly meek Chris mutates into a cold, calculating human being.

In a way, the theme in Match Point isn’t new. More than it being about luck, it is about selling your soul and giving up your principles for it.

If you want to watch Woody Allen at his very best, do not miss Match Point.