Match Point

[londonaster]

Seriously. His accent is pretty English with an Irish lilt in there once in awhile. Which is weird because I think I read that Rhys-Meyers said he's playing an Irishman even though Woody Allen never actually told him whether Chris was English or Irish. JRM really should just talk in his lovely Irish accent the whole time.

[jazz]

Tom Goode's nickname for him in the movie i "Irish". He's supposed to be a working class Irishman who emigrated to London to betetr his life. It's part of why the film didn't quite work with me. Also, Emily Mortimer's Chloe made me squirm in my seat. She was so awkward and unbelievable as a millionaire's daughter.

[Deleted]

This movie was awful. It clocks in at about two hours, but feels more like three while telling a story that could easily have been slotted into your average 1 hour (less 16 min for commercials) TV slot and was about as sophisticated as well. Unlike the affection he’s always shown for Manhattan, Allen makes no effort to take advantage of his setting. He doesn’t capture the distinctive light, architecture, river, and energy of central London and even uses a background shot of the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, for chrissake. Other than cheesy shots like this, very little maintains any idea that the action takes place in London, except maybe the accents. Certainly not the dialogue, because when it comes to writing for Brits, Allen has an ear of purest cloth. No Brit would ever say things like "I grew up in Belgravia" or indeed say to an Irishman "Hey Irish". Also, you know a movie is lazily underwritten when the only things you know about the characters’ strengths and weaknesses comes from a handful of lines tossed off by another character. For example we're supposed to believe that Emily Mortimer's character is supposed to be "frighteningly bright", but we see no real evidence of this. Equally we're supposed to buy Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, who plays the most transparent character since Casper the Friendly Ghost, as a young man of integrity beset by moral conundrums when he so clearly marries this woman for the company car alone.

And I am really sick of Woody Allen's cod intellectualism. I hate to break it to you Woods, but most people, who would even consider seeing your increasingly lame movies, read Crime and Punishment as teenagers and have developed a sense of moral challenge that is bit more sophisticated than anything the loathsomely boring people in this flick ever struggle with.

To quote the great Eric Cartman: this movie was f**king weak.

[jazz]

And that is why I can not get the raves and praises being heaped upon Woody and this movie. Please, the dialogue sometimes veer into "cringy" and like you said, "cheesy".

[Deleted]

Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian trashed it and I tend to agree with his opinions. I love Woody Allen and will see it in any case, but I really did hope that the glowing reviews would turn out to be real, not people exploding because Woody has finally made a decent film again. It sounds like Woody does not have an ear for "Brit speak" and that type of thing might be lost on a lot of American critics (although Roger Ebert is such an anglophile I am surprised that he wouldn't have noticed the use of the definite article before Tate Modern) and would be extremely annoying to UK-based critics. I still think it looks good and hope I am not too disappointed in the end result.

[Deleted]

My friend and I saw this last week and we hated it! But we had both heard positive things about it, so we were a little shocked about how sucky it was. Does anyone know what kind of purse ScarJo is toting around in this movie? It was a brown leather bag and I was more involved with that bag then the characters.

[ownlife]

I saw this yesterday and found it only so-so. Woody has ratcheted up his misogyny. While the relationship issues mirrored A Place in the Sun, I thought JRM's character was closer to the guy in A Kiss Before Dying (Ira Levin's novel).

[Deleted]

I saw it yesterday and really enjoyed it. I am not really a fan of Jonathan Rhys Meyers but he rocked the clock as did ScarJo (her drunk scene was pretty awesome). It isn't anywhere near Woody Allen's better movies but judged on its own merits is was pretty great. It was also a lot funnier than I expected. The stuff with the serious opera fan being elated at getting to go see an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical was hilarious (to me - no one else was really laughing - but seriously HEE!!!!) as were the mean things said by Penelope Wilton's character.

[clementine74]

ThursdayNext--I pretty much agree with your comments--I really, really enjoyed it. I did feel that it was a bit of a mess--but it still held up, in my opinion. I thought it was pretty damn sexy, too.

[londonaster]

I saw it yesterday and liked it too. It was a bit all over the place, but enjoyable and the performances made it better.

I swear if Matthew Goode doesn't have an amazing career I'll cry. He's too pretty and too talented and he pulled off Chasing Liberty for god's sake. JRM is just brilliant, and somehow he could go from his crazy, stalker eyes to completely gorgeous. And him making out was about the hottest thing ever, sign me up.

It's a step in the right direction for Woody Allen though. 5 years ago if someone asked me to go see a Woody Allen movie I would've laughed really hard at them.