Re-Match

I've mentioned it before, but I have a Top 100 Movies list. An actual list, not just an "oh, that's gotta be one of my 100 favorite movies" kind of thing. It's thanks to a co-worker from my days back in Virginia, who dazzled the department when he actually produced a printout of his list one day and got us all thinking about what our own list would look like.

The thing is, my list has gotten hopelessly out of date. I just haven't maintained it as I've seen new worthy movies over the past several years. But recently, I've decided to update it, and to be a bit more methodical about it than I was the first time I put it together. I actually want to watch several of the movies on the list... or that might get onto the list. That's because there are times when my recollection of a film just isn't sharp enough for me to know where I should place it.

So it was with Match Point, a film which I've actually reviewed here on the blog before. The thing is, I wrote what I feel is a completely uninformative review of the movie. So uninformative, that reading it myself didn't really help jog my memory about the parts of the movie I was fuzzy on. So let me try again.

First, let me say that after watching Match Point again, my overall opinion hasn't really changed. I'd still call it a B+. And honestly, that's almost certainly not good enough to make the list -- I have to have seen at least 100 movies that I'd rate an A or an A-. (I'm not that picky, am I?) But I remember liking the film enough that I thought it worth a second look all the same.

The first time I wrote about Match Point, I completely avoided any description of the plot, trying to avoid spoiling too much of the surprises in the movie. That seems a bit extreme to me now. Gotta say something to get your interest, don't I? So here it is:

Match Point is the story of an Irish tennis player from a poor background (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers). He wasn't quite good enough to be a successful pro, so now he makes his living as an instructor to obscenely rich people with more money than skill (or even interest, really). He forges an actual friendship with one of his students (played by Matthew Goode), who turns out to have a sister (Emily Mortimer) who quickly becomes romantically interested in him. There are also two loving British parents (Brian Cox and Penelope Wilton) who are quick to welcome the young man into the family and hook him up with a sweet job. The trouble is, his friend also has an alluring fiancée (Scarlett Johansson) that our protagonist is more drawn to than the sister. Complications ensue, with the film following the tangled relationships of the characters.

If that description sounds a bit stuffy and British and repressed... well, it sort of is. And that's actually a strength in this film, because I found it to be of a very different character than the work writer-director Woody Allen is normally known for (neurotic and Jewish and... well... okay, still repressed). And in the final act of the film, things grow suddenly much darker and very compelling.

The acting is really strong, even that of Jonathan Rhys Meyers. I must say, I'd been thinking a little less of him lately as I watched him in the last season of The Tudors. (His "transformation" from a shouting tyrant to a shouting tyrant with a slightly wheezy voice was not the texture change needed to keep the drama on that show from being often one-note.) In this film, he really makes you feel the noose close around his neck, even as you disapprove of his character's decisions.

There. I hope that will do better in teasing you into watching the film. Because I do still recommend it. But as I said, my grade of B+ still hasn't changed, and that's really because the middle section of the film drags a bit. The opening is great, with the characters all intriguing as you get to know them, and the situations filled with tension. The ending is fantastic, as things bust loose in a dramatically satisfying way. It's just that the middle bogs down a bit, playing the same dramatic beat again and again. ("You have to say something." "I will." He doesn't. "You have to say something...") Still, while the figurative sandwich might not be very hearty, the bread is frakking delicious.

So if you think you might like a bit of a soap opera with a dark edge, check out Match Point. It may not be top 100 material, but it deserves better than the sloppy review I gave it four-and-a-half years ago.