Match Point (2005)

Directed by Woody Allen. Starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Emily Mortimer, Scarlett Johansson, Matthew Goode, Brian Cox, Penelope Wilton, James Nesbitt, Ewen Bremner, Margret Tyzack, Rupert Penry-Jones. [R]

Former professional tennis player Meyers enjoys the posh trappings of life while dating the sister (Mortimer) of a former classmate (Goode) from a wealthy London family, but becomes obsessed with Goode’s sexy American girlfriend Johansson; this can only end badly. After several years of disappointing efforts, Woody enters rare full-blown drama territory, even employing suspense elements out of a Hitchcockian thriller, and pulls it off superbly. Criticized in some circles for its lack of “English authenticity” (the plot was originally intended to take place among the elite in the Hamptons), but this is a universal tale for most Western cultures, dovetailing its opening statement on the fickle impact of luck towards the end in a nicely surprising way. Makes good use of Meyers’ typical detached blandness to expose moral degradation in the face of selfish compulsions, and even if the characters are sometimes shallowly observed, they find themselves at the service of the efficient machinery of a plot that resists idiosyncrasy. Applies the opera recording of “Una furtiva lagrima” (“A furtive tear”) as a recurring motif to haunting effect.

85/100