Match Point

[sjankis630]

Well just got back from seeing this new Woody Allen drama . I can honestly say that I liked parts of the movie, but overall I was slightly disappointed.
I am interested in others opinions though, as there must be something that I missed that everyone who has been raving about the movie saw that I didn't. I will say this. After being positively meh on Ms. Johansson's looks in any movie I have seen her in (esp. Lost in Translation) I have to say that for whatever reason she looks positively radiant in this one. But not enough for me to recommend it to others though. I must have gone in with the wrong idea of what I was expecting to see.

[jazz]

Saw this today at the mall trying to kill time. It was okay but I can't see the raves. Tom Goode looks like a younger Rupert Everett and you are right - Scarlett looked very pretty in this movie. Rhys-Meyer baffles me. He looks good in some scene and positively ugly in some.

And for a supposedly working class Irish lad, he has a very posh English accent in the movie. Emily Mortimer looks like a nerdy schoolgirl instead of a supposedly "in the manor born" girl. And they're even predicting this movie can be a Best Picture nominee!

[scarlet]

jazz said:

And they're even predicting this movie can be a Best Picture nominee!

Really? I don't see that.

I saw it today, as well. My reaction was pretty similar -- I liked it well enough, but wasn't bowled over. SJ looked gorgeous, but JRM does nothing for me. I did think the last ten minutes were pretty good, and in context with that whole luck vs. talent theme, but award-worthy? No.

[tamaradixon]

I just can't believe this is a Woody Allen film. I've yet to see, but because its Woody, I'm totally turned off.

[iwantquail]

I thought it was masterful. I'm still trying to put my finger on all of my thoughts about the film, but something about it struck me as very... classical, somehow. It had a feeling that reminded me of a Shakespearean tragedy (although, obviously, not nearly as good) -- the protagonist gets what he wants but finds the cost too high, something in the vein of Macbeth or Hamlet.

What did you all think of Chris (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers' character)? He seemed... empty, somehow, but it took me a while to realize it. We never knew what he was thinking, where he came from, or what he wanted beyond the preservation of his new fortune and lifestyle. It was shocking to realize the lengths he was prepared to go to, or how he had been lying to Nola. He reminded me of the protagonist in Camus' The Stranger, where everything seems sort of unnecessary, meaningless, and drifting yet brutal.

[jazz]

He is an amoral man. He goes for what he wants and then discard people when he does not want them anymore. I never thought that he would leave his wife for Scarlett. He is docused on one thing - hinself. There are a lot of people like that and they do not see anything wrong with it.

[memememe76]

So, is it like Closer? It's opening here this weekend and I don't really want to see it, unless they actually get Oscar nods (I still have to see Capote).

[hal9000]

I gather that it's more like this movie. I read an interview in which Allen himself refered to the source material.

[Deleted]

And for a supposedly working class Irish lad, he has a very posh English accent in the movie.

I'm not sure how this is gonna come across and trust me I don't wish to offend but.....

are you absolutely positively sure that was an English accent?

I can't imagine if he played an Irish character that he would assume an English accent.

I think most US audiences are familiar with one Irish accent and one alone, i.e. a Dublin one, like Colin Farrells. In Ireland, there are as many accents as weeks in the year, and they're all incredibly different from each other.

Rhys-Meyers is from North County Cork, I believe. I'm sure he had to iron it out over the years - the Cork accent is very, very musical and probably isn't bland enough for film work. But I saw him on Irish TV on Friday night doing an interview and his accent was as Irish as mine. It's a very quick, smooth and articulate accent - quite sophisticated, and certainly nothing other than Irish.

I wonder if US audiences were only exposed to Colin Farrells accent before whether they might assume that R-M's accent couldn't possibly be Irish?

[jazz]

Believe me, it was not only me. London critics are saying the same thing.