Match Point

A brilliantly written and acted conversational drama, with an ending that, as you can see from the reviews here, many viewers will find hard to stomach. But it’s the denouement of the story, surprising, somewhat cynical, going against the established stereotypes, trampling on my idealistic soul, that gives the whole narrative the right poignancy (those for whom Columbo, Perry Mason or other detective stories are daily bread will probably be unpleasantly surprised). The only weakness I can see is the character of the detective, whose speech in the final five minutes (the way he suddenly gets up from bed or gesticulates comically when he reveals his theory) pushes the story to a kind of farce. But that's really just such a small blip on the beauty of the whole. (24/09/2006)

Romance novel material. Or maybe even lust novel. After many years of not such good movies, Woody really needed the ball to fall on the right side of the net, even if it meant a drop shot. Moving the acting to London giving it a hint of Hitchcock won him the entire match. And as his following movies show, this was no swan song or stroke of luck. Thank god. (26/12/2008)

When the main "hero" of Woody Allen's film (the supremely unsympathetic Jonathan Rhys Meyers) reads Dostoyevsky's ‘Crime and Punishment", it can't turn out particularly well for him... Or can it? Match Point is an excellent spectacle. It doesn't matter that almost nothing happens during the first hour that the viewer wouldn't expect, because what happens next and especially at the end makes up for it. However, I have to disagree with the opinions that there is no humor in the film. There is. It's black through and through, but it's there. (10/07/2015)

Unfortunately, the final quarter of the film is very different from the rest in terms of its concept, which downgrades the overall impression by at least a notch. From a fairly promising, decently acted, and emotionally powerful film, in the final moments it becomes a comical farce, humorous on its own but not quite fitting. Woody Allen makes the most out of the minimum, he pics talented actors and an attractive theme (a love triangle), places them in an even more attractive setting (English high society), and complements everything with sharp and dynamically written dialogues. But no matter how good the film may seem at the beginning, the ending is very bad and disappointing. Overall, it's something between three and four stars. (24/03/2006)

I like the love triangle according to Woody. I completely disagree that this isn’t a Woody Allen classic. It seems to me that it retains his style. And if he was improvising in a new direction, it was just an added bonus. What caught my attention was the Scarlett as a blackmailer and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a man who is incapable of arranging his life rationally. But I don't mind at all that he did it irrationally... at least that meant there was more drama. Crazy, but good. 4 stars. (21/08/2011)