This is definitely not your parents’ Woody Allen film.
With “Match Point,” the latest offering from the
filmmaker, Allen has departed from many of the conventions of his
earlier work. London has replaced the director’s much-beloved
New York as the setting. Sensuality has replaced self-deprecation
as the definitive element of romance. Opera music has replaced
1930s jazz on the soundtrack. Even Allen’s own screenwriting
seems to have been replaced with a story more along the lines of a
Fyodor Dostoevsky novel.
Like the Russian author’s classic “Crime and
Punishment,” Allen’s film, which opens Dec. 28, offers
a probing analysis of the power of greed, passion, arrogance and
obsession to lead one toward immorality. Struggling Irish tennis
player Chris Wilton, played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, marries the
daughter of a wealthy English businessman. Temptation in the form
of an American femme fatale soon arises, plunging Wilton into a
life where deception, lust and angst coexist with afternoon tea and
weekends in the countryside.
Allen has also seemingly found a new muse in actress Scarlett
Johansson, who plays the Yankee temptress. The two recently
finished filming yet another collaboration ““
“Scoop,” a light-hearted comedy that will tentatively
be released next year ““ making Johansson the first lead
actress to be used by Allen twice in a row since Mia Farrow.
“I’ve always been a huge fan of Woody,”
Johansson said. “He’s one of the few directors
I’ve always wanted to work for. … I got to see him each day
on the set for two months, which was a joy. It was a dream come
true.”
Johansson was quick to stress that she did not draw from any
real-life experience for her performance.
“I don’t think of myself as a femme fatale,”
she said jokingly. “I’ve never seduced someone and
ruined their life ““ at least as far as I know.”
The bond established between the filmmaker and his new leading
lady was apparent on set. While filming a love scene with Meyers in
the high grasses of the English countryside, rain poured down on
the actress and a crisp wind filled the air. Frantically fleeing
the elements after the shot, she sprinted not to a personal
assistant or private trailer, but rather the welcoming arms of
Allen.
“I ran over to Woody, who gave me a big hug, and I
thought, “˜Alright, things are going to be OK,'”
Johansson said with a chuckle.
The changes in the filmmaker’s style have resulted in
perhaps the most talked-about Allen film in more than a decade,
beginning with a well-received screening at the Cannes Film
Festival last May, and continuing strong with the current Oscar
buzz.
Actress Emily Mortimer, who plays the wife of the tempted tennis
player, attributed the film’s strength to Allen’s
script.
“It was very arresting to read it,” she said.
“You desperately want to know what’s going to
happen.”
And with the ending, the film reaches a peak of complexity and
emotion reminiscent of the finest 19th-century Russian
literature.
“It’s the opposite of a neat conclusion,”
Mortimer said. “It’s complete chaos in how it leaves
the audience feeling ““ there’s something almost
existential about the ending, although I’m sure (Allen) would
balk at such a description. … He said the whole concept of the
film was much less deep than Dostoevsky.”
At least some of Allen’s characteristic self-deprecation
has endured.