Match Point (2005)

Written and Directed by Woody Allen

Partial Cast
Jonathan Rhys Meyers......Chris Wilton
Brian Cox.............................Alec Hewett
Penelope Wilton.................Eleanor Hewett
Emily Mortimer..................Chloe Hewett Wilton
Scarlett Johansson..............Nola Rice

The second half of this review is FULL of spoilers. I'll warn you ahead of time though, but use caution if you haven't seen the film yet. It requires some suspense to be fully enjoyed.

I feared this movie would be a disappointment. It wasn't, not really. I didn't love it, though. I found it thoroughly mean spirited and lacking in human kindness. I'd heard some glowing one-line reviews, but I'd tried not to read anything about the picture. This is definitely "late" Woody Allen. It deals with issues of marriage and fidelity and the approach is close to humorless. Funny lines are spoken but the tone of the film is grave and dour.

The hero (later to become the anti-hero) is played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who I thought was supposed to be something of a fox. I whispered to my companion, "He's not very good looking." She agreed and said that he can be handsome or ugly depending on the film. That's probably true--he has one of those flexible faces. In this film, however, he was not handsome.

Early in the film he embarks on a mild campaign of self-improvement, reading Dostoevsky (foreshadowing) and listening to opera. You don't know whether his efforts are sincere or calculated. In fact, the answer to that question is never resolved though I think it's easy to lean towards calculated, both answers are possible.

Chris seems to be getting along swimmingly with an upper-class girlfriend and her family when he meets the woman who threatens to be his undoing, one Miss Scarlett Johansson. She is engaged to his girlfriend's brother. Their meeting is played nicely over a ping-pong table. Tennis pro that he is, he stomps her and she handles it...smoothly.

I expected not to like Nola, the character Johansson plays, because previews led me to believe she was a one-note seductress. That is not at all the case. Until she is transformed into a shrieking harpy at the end of the film she is probably the most sympathetic character. She is complicated, confused, strong and vulnerable. A rather more sympathetic female character than Allen usually lets into his later works.

But things spiral out of control in the second half of the picture.

SPOILER ALERT.






After the affair of Chris and Nola starts to go wrong, the film turns to one of Allen's favorite later tropes: murder and mystery. Though we have the inside knowledge, we don't know what the outcome will be--that is, will he get away with it.

Some viewers may find themselves rooting for the anti-hero as he commits a heinous crime. I found myself cringing and thinking, "No, no, no. Stop now. There is still time to stop." Later, when an Inspector (British style detective) sits straight up in bed inspired by the solution to the crime, I was cheering for him. But he is foiled by a very clever plot twist that looked like it would be Chris's undoing and turned out to be his salvation.

In this movie, the bad guy wins, the innocents suffer or remain ignorant and life goes on. It left me a little queasy.

Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)

Directed by Otto Preminger, starring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney. I had never heard of it before, but it was showing at the AFI Silver, so I decided to check it out. It was a good film, though not a great film, which might be the reason. It was no Laura though. Tierney's performance is relatively tiny, though I lover her no matter what. She has almost perfect features, a perfect figure and that silly "Broadway British" diction. She is almost unreal in a way no modern star is. Maybe Faye Dunaway in years past comes closest.

The real draw for me, though, was Dana Andrews. I really love Dana Andrews. Is it because he's not quite as well known today as other stars of his era (1940's-50's)? I don't know how well he was known in his time. But I adore him. The Best Years of Our Lives? Great stuff, I tell you.

He was very good in this. Lots of close-ups and lots of showing. Except for the ending, which was satisfying, but whoever was in charge felt the need to make explicit a few things that were better left to the imagination.

Still, I enjoyed the film. The black and while was gritty and realistic looking, even though the plot was almost but not quite believable.

Definitely glad I saw it.

Last Holiday (2006)

This was not a good movie, not even close, but it was enjoyable, amusing and except for the pat ending, easy to watch (i.e. not cringe-inducing).

I will watch almost anything with Queen Latifa. Unfortunately most of her parts are crap, but she is one of the most commanding presences in contemporary film. I'm not kidding. She is so likeable that she brings joy to almost any role. She seems to be specializing in under appreciated these days, which is a tad absurd. You look at her and it's hard to imagine that this woman, even as a girl, was ever under appreciated. Maybe that's why it works. It's a little joke between her and the audience. You watch, knowing, that in the end she will be the most appreciated person on screen. She will get the man, make the money and fix everyone else's problems. She will never apologize for her color, her size or her gender. We know, she knows, but no one else in the movie does and we get to watch while they learn to appreciate her.

Oddly, her performance in Last Holiday was muted throughout. She begins the film as a painfully shy, sensible shoe wearing retail sales clerk. At the end, she is an international woman of mystery. Yet, she was so quite, so soft spoken, even after her transformation, that I wondered when she was going to shout, guffaw or burst into song. Her performance was an exercise in control and subtlety, which was completely unnecessary in this film. What is Ms. Latifah trying to prove? She is still likeable, though.

I hope she finds a worthier project soon. These lightweight, "feel-good" pictures of hers are killing me.