Match Point

Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Myers), a former tennis pro, is scoping out apartments near a tennis club. He tries reading Dostoevsky, but picks up the Cambridge Companion instead. This is a pun, but you’ll get why later. He’s invited to join his friend, Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode) and Tom’s father Alec (Brian Cox) at the opera. Tom’s sister, Chloe (Emily Mortimer), glances surreptitiously at Chris throughout the performance.

She intends to invite him out again.During a pick-up game of tennis, Tom leaves to make cocktails while Chris educates Chloe on the finer points of tennis. However, this interaction is rather perfunctory in comparison to the salacious exchange later, between Chris and Tom’s fiancee, Nola (Scarlett Johansson). Says the rapacious Nola, “Did anyone ever tell you you play an aggressive game?”

Chloe believes in fate. He rejects the idea of predetermination as theological nonsense. “What is it the Vicar used to say? ‘Despair is the path of least resistance.’,” says Chloe. Chris replies, “I think that faith is the path of least resistance.” To him, so much in life is serendipity. Life, it seems, is not without its ironies. But the affair between Nola and Chris is not a matter of luck. It’s a series of contrivances, on the characters’ part, not the director’s. They flirt orally to such a degree, what’s the difference between that and fondling each other’s bubblegum?

“You’ll do very well, unless you blow it,” she says of Chris’ apparent grooming by her father’s management. “And how am I going to blow it?” he responds. Says Nola, “By making a pass at me.”Eventually Chris becomes completely psychologically detached from Chloe, but keeps her hanging on. Chris insists on a double-date to a movie with Tom and Nola — obviously to see her. Much to his chagrin, Nola happens to have a migraine headache. They meet downtown when she’s about to audition for a part, and he offers to accompany her for “moral support.” She’s not particularly confident for an actress, and consequently blows the audition.

Do either of them really have a clue what they’re doing? They both made their bed together, but neither of them wants to lie in it. The difference is, Nola wouldn’t resign this to chance, yet is the one who fails when she applies herself. Chris keeps putting off his promised departure from his wife. Somehow, he’s the one who always manages to come out winning. Isn’t it usually the overconfident ones who entirely credit themselves for all they have achieved in life?

Their romance reminds me of so many of the romances in Fellini’s early films: The constant push-pull of an indecisive male who can’t choose between one woman and another because he wants to lose neither. The clingy, yet intelligent and manipulative female who would be just as well to depart for better waters—if only she weren’t moored by her utter lack of self-esteem.

But that is only the way it seems. The truth is that Chris is, in fact, a pragmatist. His affair doesn’t promise the financial security of his marriage to Chloe and, by proxy, her father’s money.

Then there’s the matter of the detectives. I don’t want to spoil the story, but if you think you might get the gist even at the slightest provocation, skip the review here and come back to it after you’ve seen the movie.

Ok… the detectives. I like this pair, investigating Nola’s sudden disappearance. They’re less like the bumbling simpletons of so many whodunits. Instead, they’re adept and funny, yet somewhat distanced from the situation. Like Whoopi Goldberg’s character in Robert Altman’s “The Player,” they figure Chris probably did have something to do with it… but, really, if luck evens it all out in the end, anyway… what’s it to them if the person they do catch isn’t the right one?

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Match Point • Dolby® Digital surround sound in select theatres • Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 • Running Time: 124 minutes • MPAA Rating: R for some sexuality. • Distributed by DreamWorks Pictures/Jada Productions Ltd.

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