Match Point (2005)

I believe this is the second most undeservingly praised movie of the year, next to A History of Violence. Now, don't you dare go pegging me as a Woody Allen hater...I am no such thing. I've seen almost everything he's done and love quite a lot of it. This stilted morality play, however, is not the return to form I'd heard it was.

I was thrilled to find that there's no "Woody Allen" role in this film. I don't just mean that he doesn't appear in it -- I mean that no one's playing the part he'd normally play, e.g. Will Ferrell in "Melinda and Melinda" or Kenneth Branagh in "Celebrity." It's a relief not to a find that nattering self-effacing guy providing unnatural comic relief.

But still - this movie isn't all it's cracked up to be. It takes too long to get where it's going and I didn't really care where it went. There wasn't a person on the screen that was truly likable. Sure, Chloe (the rich wife) was sweet and unpretentious -- but she was also a bit of a milksop. And our "hero" was, pretty much, a blank. Woody could have snuffed any of the characters and it wouldn't have moved me...either to tears OR to anger. I felt exactly the same about all of the principals: "eh." The movie only really takes off with the introduction of the Detective Banner (James Nesbitt -- one of my faves), and we barely get to know him before the credits roll.

C+