Match Point

HUGE

Woody Allen’s welcome exodus from his usual New York humor begins with a voice over by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers expounding on luck, fate and the improbability of creating our own destiny. Yet, as Match Point moved along, the tagline from a popular Star Wars 3 mini-poster kept coming to mind. “Your choices define your destiny.”

Meyers plays Chris Wilton, a tennis pro turned instructor at a ritzy London country club. Inevitably this permits him to hobnob with some aristocratic royalty including Alec Hewitt (Brian Cox), his son Tom (Matthew Goode) and charming daughter, Chloe (Emily Mortimer) who instantly falls for him when Tom invites Chris to an opera with his family. He and Chloe hit it off pretty well.

Enter our femme fatale, the captivating Nola, lusciously portrayed by Scarlett Johannson, whom Chris meets during a family get together at the Hewitt’s estate. After a little frisky banter between them, Chris discovers that she is Tom’s fiance’. As an aspiring actress, Nola has few prospects granting Tom’s mother Eleanor (Penelope Wilton) ample reason to disapprove of her.

Chris ends up marrying Chloe, but still can’t keep his mind off Nola. Lies , deception and lustful obsession ensue as he tries to balance a good life and new career in his father-in- laws’ business plus his wavering between a wife and a mistress. A classic case of an uncontrollable downward spiral. It gets better when Tom dumps Nola for another woman , then marries her too.

Woody Allen accomplishes, with little comic flair, to craft his own version of Fatal Attraction. And actually does it quite well. Working from his own script, he faithfully illustrates the dark side within his main character and possibly within us all, that we are capable of doing things totally against our nature, depending on our circumstances. (But aren’t we responsible for our circumstances most of the time?) Despite the opening prologue, Allen fosters serious thought on what really effects our behavior.

Obviously, no one could deny the effect of the lovely Scarlett Johannson whose moist lips are rivaled only by Angelina Jolie. She proves time and again that she’s capable of presenting to us a character with no inhibitions about revealing their qualities. Scarlett’s, Nola exhibits weaknesses as well as strengths, primarily when her “other woman” status takes a precarious turn. Although she’s excellent in the role, it’s a trifle dispointing that her character lapses into nearly total desperation.

Co-star Jonathan Rhys-Meyers brings freshness to the role of Chris Wilton, a man who gradually enters upper class society in lieu of being born into it. The character is certainly not a break out role, but he’s a young actor with loads of potential and has a number of films to his credit.

No doubt, Match Point itself certainly is not your typical Woody Allen film. That’s probably what makes it so good since it was lauded highly at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. I admit I was a bit wary initially but Allen proves he is capable of pleasant surprises. He, along with Meyers, has brilliant potential for this particular film genre.