Sunday, February 05, 2006
Match Point (2005)
Cast: Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Chris Wilton), Matthew Goode (Tom Hewett), Emily Mortimer (Chloe Hewett Wilton), Scarlett Johansson (Nola Rice), Brian Cox (Alec Hewett), Penelope Wilton (Eleanor Hewett)
For complete cast info, see IMDb's Match Point page.
In spite of the amazing reviews (I read only titles, but the titles were clear), I was wary of Match Point for two reasons. 1. I'm typically not a Woody Allen fan (at all) and 2. A friend of mine told me it was a great movie with a horribly depressing soundtrack and if she had to see it again, she'd do it with ear plugs, since the opera was in every scene and too depressing. I really can't stand opera, so I worried that I might feel the same way, though I thought she was being a bit melodramatic...
Turns out that I loved Match Point. It's definitely not a happy go-lucky movie, but I didn't expect it to be from the little I had heard. I'm certainly not going to rush out and buy the soundtrack (which was all opera), but I thought that the opera was very fitting to the movie. The story is amazing. Quite frankly, I can't believe it was written by Woody Allen. I was blown away. There are so many twists and I really predicted a few other things to happen. The way they connected the intro to the end of the movie was beautiful. The cast is amazing, which I knew before seeing Match Point, but they show their depths even more in this movie.
I highly recommend you see this in movie theaters if you can still catch it. If not, it's definitely a must for your rental list!
Grade: ALabels: 2005, drama, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, movie, romance, Scarlett Johansson, thriller