Match Point review

 Number 568 on the top 1000 films of all time us Woody Allen's psychological thriller 'Match Point.'

Spoilers ahead

Christ Wilton (Jonathan Rhy Meyers) is an Irish former professional tennis player who marries into an upper-class English family. However, he risks everything when he starts an affair with his brother-in-law's American girlfriend Nola (Scarlett Johansson.)

Let's start with the Jonathan Rhys Meyers-shaped elephant in the room. Chris Wilton is Irish. It's a big part of his character. It's his nickname at one point. Meyers is Irish. Why does Meyers play the character with an English accent? It made no sense.

Anyway...I have seen a few Woody Allen comedies in my time and I have never been a fan. Judging from Match Point, I'm not a fan of his dramas either. He originally conceived this with an American cast and setting, but after failing to get funding, he reimagined it for an British setting and cast. The only exception was Scarlett Johansson who was a last-minute replacement for Kate Winslet.

Match Point divided critics with the Yanks loving it and Brits hating it. Guess what side I fall down on? It doesn't surprise me that American audiences loved this film; it has everything they know and love about British cinema, or think they know and love: good-looking men like Matthew Goode and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, posh English accents, afternoon tea, London landmarks, black taxis and upper-class people doing upper-class things like clay-pigeon shooting. it was like Allen had a list of criteria he needed to hit, I was half-expecting to see Dick Van Dyke singing about cleaning chimneys.

Allen's script was not good. The dialogue was clunky and unnatural with the English characters speaking in American English - Wilson says he was buying a sweater when any other English person would have been buying a jumper. Never mind a silver spoon, it was like the characters were walking around with dictionaries in their mouth. Plus, the plot was rushed. Chris and Nola have an instant-love connection with no catalyst prompting their illicit affair. neither of their parents didn't do anything to deserve being cheated on, not that anybody ever does, but it did make their relationship even more shallow.

Yet this wasn't all down to Allen. Granted the cast wasn't working with the best of scripts, but their performances were not good. Meyers was creepy, Johansson was whiny and annoying - the two of them had no on-screen chemistry at all, and Emily Mortimer, who played Chris' wife Chloe, had all the charisma of a ham sandwich. I understand that she was supposed to be boring, or, at least, too boring to interest Chris, but we saw little evidence of this, before he starts sleeping with Nola.

At two hours and five minutes, this was Allen's longest film, but it could be have been fifteen minutes shorter. The film culminates in the most half-arsed police investigation ever. After Nola falls victim to the surprise pregnancy cliche, Chris is caught in a dilemma to leave Chloe for her or to keep living his double-life. He does neither. He concocts a hair-brained scheme to shoot Nola's neighbour and then her and then stages the scene to look like a drug-fuelled burglary. 

Despite the flaws in his plan, despite how the ghostly apparitions of Nola and her neighbour appearing (the less said about this the better) appear to Chris taunting him about being caught, despite how Chris carelessly drops a piece of incriminating evidence on the script, despite how the police call him in for questioning, despite how everything paints toward him getting caught, he gets away with the crime scot-free.

One of the policemen solves the crime in his dream and is sure that Chris is lying, but is easily persuaded otherwise by his colleague. It's all just ridiculous. it was like Allen was worried he didn't have enough conflict for the final act, so he shoe-horned in this silly police investigation, which he knew wouldn't go anywhere.

Match Point was like every American's wet dream about British culture. But as is often the case, the dream is nothing like the reality. Tennis is a key theme of the film, but Allen served up a complete dud. A while ago, I wrote an article about films that should not be on the top 1000 films of all time. If I were to write another list, Match Point would surely be at the top.

Lost in Translation review

 Number 485 on the top 1000 films of all time is Sofia Coppola's romantic comedy-drama 'Lost in Translation.'

Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is a fading movie-star shooting Suntory whisky commercials in Tokyo, Japan. While there he starts to question his own direction in life. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is also in Tokyo for her husband's photography work. Feeling neglected, she starts looking for something more and finds Bob. The two characters form an unlikely relationship.

Sofia Coppola is a much better director than she ever was an actress. If you've read my Godfather Part III review, you would know that I despised Sofia Coppola in that. However, with Lost in Translation, she crafted a touching, moving and wonderfully understated film. It had moments of levity, but it also left us with plenty to think about. Engaging with themes like isolation and alienation, she creates a subtle, but powerful narrative. There was also some gorgeous cinematography. I particularly loved the shot which shows Bob and Charlotte reflected in a window while Tokyo's nightline is in a bokeh. 

In many ways, Lost in Translation  reminded me of Spike Jonze's film Her. This was an excellent film that engages with similar themes, albeit with more of a science-fiction twist. It also had a similar cinematography that made it so pretty to watch. And, of course, both films star Scarlett Johansson. Considering Coppola was married to Jonze at the time she filmed Lost in Translation, it shouldn't be any surprise that the films were so similar.

I have to admit I don't much care for Bill Murray as an actor. I find that he generally always takes the same role - a cynical, miserly, grumpy old man. In many ways that's what Bob Harris is, but this character did have much more depth than many of other Murray's roles. And I think he did a good job in making Bob Harris quite sympathetic. More impressive though was Scarlett Johansson. At only seventeen, she was incredibly charming. Granted, she was still quite rough around the edges, but she showed her raw potential.

Overall, I did enjoy Lost in Translation. It had some great direction from Sofia Coppola, as well as some gorgeous cinematography. But it was just a moving and understated experience.

Ghost World review

 Number 819 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2001 black-comedy drama Ghost World.

Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) have just graduated high school. Other than living together, they have no plans for the future. For a laugh, they respond to the lonely, middle-aged Seymour's (Steve Buscemi) classified dating ad. But seeing how devastated their actions have made him, they decide to make amends by finding him love for real.

I have to admit that this film had to grow on me. At first, Enid and Rebecca were a little annoying. Enid was, at least, Rebecca didn't seem to have a life or personality outside of her friend. But both girls are very nihilistic, bemoaning the exploitative nature of the capitalist world. There isn't anything inherently wrong with nihilistic characters, but there has to be more to them than their "I hate the world" shtick. Otherwise they're little more than annoying, negative Noras. Hardly characters you like and want to root for.

Things picked up immensely with Steve Buscemi's character of Seymour. Buscemi excels in anything he's in and Seymour was no exception. Seymour is a sad, lonely man who only finds joy in his extensive collection of blues records. Like Thora and Rebecca, he is cynical, but unlike them, he isn't completely jaded. He is still trying to find happiness rather than resigning himself to a lifetime of misery. This did make him a likeable character. And he and Enid brought out the best of each other. As Enid schemes to find him love, she realises she is falling in love with him, and he with her. Eventually, they consummate their relationship.

In a post #metoo movement world, you could probably read a weird subtext of an older man sleeping with a nineteen year old Thora Birch, but 2001 might as well be two centuries ago. And the past is another world.

This was a strange film. If you can get past the slow beginning, then I think it's well worth a watch.