Match Point
starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Scarlett Johansson
My enjoyment of this film was rather subdued when watching, but it has grown on me since. Match Point is a subtle and delicate take on one man's struggle to reconcile lust and a life of largesse. Chris Wilton, the ex-pro tennis player, is a lucky man, and within half an hour of the film beginning he is being groomed for a top job by the incredibly succesful father of his girlfriend. He also falls for his girlfriend's fiance, and it is his balancing act that forms the focus of the rest of the film. Will his luck run out? Jonathan Rhys Meyers turns in a poor mans Joaquin Phoenix, and doesn't quite nail it but does a pretty good job. Scarlett Johansson comes across at first as disjointed, but its not till the end of the film that you realise just how good she was. Overall the film is exactly free of all the things that makes one cynical about most blockbuster movies. It is a return to the classics in that sense. 7/10