Match Point

I saw an excellent movie this weekend, from writer and director Woody Allen called Match Point. If you are at all like me, then I'm surprised that you made it this far. How many times do we need to see the Woodster stutter and moan about his latest neurosis? Right? The good news is: he tastefully left himself out of this one, choosing instead to sit in the director's chair where he belongs.

Match Point is a brilliant piece of work. I don't claim to have seen all of his previous works, but I've seen more than my share. This movie is nothing like anything I've seen of his before. As the credits rolled, my wife and I looked at one another, totally stunned. That was a great movie, we kept saying, as if we didn't believe it. We didn't. The ending was outstanding, right up there in my book with the Sixth Sense. You might laugh after seeing it for this comparison, but I stand by it.

The theme of the movie--yes, I said theme, and yes I actually identified it--was luck, and its unheralded role in prosperity and despair. You see this theme at play throughout, in conversations and in action.

You may think, after watching the first half hour that you know how it will play out; but that is the power this picture holds over you. It denies what you know, defies your expectation, and keeps doing so until the end.

The characters defy modern stereotypes as well. It seems that in today's world, everyone has to be depraved in some fashion, that nobody can just be who they seem to be. Gone are the Capra days of the well-intended, the happy, the polite. Allen again breaks new ground, or old ground if you will. Of course, not all the players fit expectations, but who's who is part of the fun.

From a writer's standpoint, this is one of those head slappers. How in the hell did he do that? This is the best movie I've seen since, since... I can't remember.