Chris, a former tennis pro, takes a job as an instructor and befriends his wealthy young student, Tom. After being introduced to his family, Chris is soon engaged to Tom's sister, Chloe. Despite the professional and financial advantages that this relationship affords him, Chris becomes obsessed with Tom's fiancee, American actress Nola.
_Match Point, or, Crime & Misdemeanors, Except I Changed Like 4 Things, And the Mistress is Really Hot This Time_
Declining tennis pro "Wilton" (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is looking for a job at a swanky London club teaching the well-healed folks like "Tom" (Matthew Goode) and his sister "Chloe" (Emily Mortimer) to whom, after a rather brief courtship, he ultimately gets married. He gets used to her standard of living but isn't really that enamoured of the woman herself. That scenario only worsens when he meets budding actress "Nola" (Scarlett Johansson) - who was dating "Tom" and they start to have an affair. With his wife determined to start a family and a mistress who is becoming increasingly obsessive, poor old "Wilton" must resort to some desperate measures! What possessed Wood Allen to cast JRM here? He's so wooden he makes Victor Mature look animated. Sure, he's got the eye-candy look but as an actor he's terrible. Luckily, that's more than compensated for by strong efforts from Johansson and from Mortimer who both manage their roles with considerably greater aplomb. The former illustrates her journey from independently minded woman to a frenetically preoccupied one quite convincingly as the story develops, and Mortimer likewise conveys something of the visceral and turbulent nature of aspiring motherhood. It takes a look at the lives of the offspring of the wealthy in a slightly less procedural fashion, too. The benign parents - Brian Cox and Penelope Wilton - are not your stereotypically doting parents, they expect him to work for his new found riches and she, especially, tends to speak as she finds. The denouement is my kind of conclusion, even if it is a little on the far-fetched side, and there's a degree of concluding satisfaction to be had here that I quite enjoyed. I'm still not sure why she didn't marry "Tom" though!
This is one I've seen a handful of times before and while I liked it, I wasn't as love with it when I first saw. Still a solid suspense-drama with fine acting (but not great), it is of course being a Woody Allen film, very talky. The suspense does ratchet up in the final 15-minutes and the theme of luck is well done. There is one gaping plot hole in regards to Nola's pregnancy which any autopsy would catch coupled with Chris's initial denial of the affair when talking with the police, I can kind of explain it away with lazy police work I guess. **4.25/5**
On a side note, while yes Scarlet Johansson is gorgeous, I actually find Emily Mortimer wildly attractive as well...
