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Match Point
DreamWorks SKG


7.1

based on 40 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 198 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for some sexuality

Starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Emily Mortimer, Matthew Goode, Brian Cox, and Penelope Wilton

Match Point is a drama about ambition and obsession, the seduction of wealth, and the often discordant relationship between love and sexual passion. Perhaps most importantly, however, the story reveals the huge part luck plays in the events of our lives, refuting the comforting misconception that more of life is under our control than really is. (Dream Works Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Woody Allen
DIRECTED BY:	Woody Allen
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 25, 2006 Theatrical: December 28, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	124 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA / UK

Received four Golden Globe nominations, including Best Picture (Drama). Allen also received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

To call Match Point Woody Allen's comeback would be an understatement - it's the most vital return to form for any director since Robert Altman made "The Player."

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

One reason for the fascination of Woody Allen's Match Point is that each and every character is rotten.

100

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Whether it's simply the change of locale, or a change in Allen's psyche, something is up in Match Point. With a dark view of humankind, and of the vagaries of chance - bad luck, good luck, dumb luck - the filmmaker has crafted a wicked, winning gem.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Allen's most satisfying film since "Bullets Over Broadway" (1994) and his most compelling since "Crimes and Misdemeanors" (1989).

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

An unpredictable, unusual, consistently engrossing drama of a kind that has almost disappeared from Hollywood.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It's a sexy thriller, tautly constructed, deeply acted and heartfelt, despite a cool and knowing tone.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The gloom of random, meaningless existence has rarely been so much fun, and Mr. Allen's bite has never been so sharp, or so deep. A movie this good is no laughing matter.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Its many pleasures derive from the way this drama unfolds unexpectedly from the characters rather than imposing itself on them.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

What fans want are good movies. This one isn't particularly funny or romantic, but it's gripping and tragic. It asks some nasty, yet profound, questions about human desire and behavior.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Not only could one argue that this is the best "serious" work the director has ever attempted, but it's presented in a way that even the most seasoned Allen fan will have difficulty recognizing the iconic filmmaker's fingerprints.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Woody Allen's best movie in years means to trip us up: Sexual sizzle. London instead of Manhattan. Brit actors. Dark humor with a sting that leaves welts. You bet it's a change. And it looks good on the Woodman.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Allen, rejuvenated by foreign settings, makes us appreciate posh parts of England as he always did Manhattan. (Credit cinematographer Remi Adefarasin for showing us how seductive upper-crust London can be.)

Premiere Peter Debruge

Woody's a master wordsmith, and here he's crafted a bit of audience-friendly fare that's smart without feeling exclusionary. It's a portrait of elite society--and the hangers-on who wish to penetrate it--made in an surprisingly accessible way.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Match Point begins to recall Hitchcock as it unfolds, although it wouldn't be right to call it a thriller. This is still very much a Woody Allen movie, populated by upper-class characters who chatter about literature and fine art, frequent museums and designer boutiques and accidentally run into each other on the street with uncanny regularity.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Rhys-Meyers and Johansson work well together - they both know how to project glossiness and guile.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Well-observed and superbly cast picture is the filmmaker's best in quite a long time.

Film Threat Jeremy Mathews

Allen covers it all with intelligent dialogue and unexpected moments of clever visual storytelling.

Empire Adam Smith

Even for non-Allen fans this has all the appeal of a good story well told and capped with a deliciously vicious little twist.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A sort of romance noir -- spruced up in pressed white linens -- this British-made film is elegant, uncompromising and oh-so- veddy nasty.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

It pretty much keeps its pulse steady, its blood cold and its nerves tamped down -- which, combined with cinematographer Remi Adefarasin's architectural Hitchcockian flourishes, lends a queasy, cool air to the proceedings.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

The movie is unexpectedly disciplined and enjoyable.

Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt

Match Point is fantastic to look at, sharply dramatic and Allen is--who knew?--a master of suspense.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Proof that Allen, who many have dismissed with his last few forgettable films, is still a filmmaking force.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Just when the seemingly endless scenes of Johansson's nagging threaten to sink Match Point for good, the movie becomes the thriller that early reports promised.

Newsweek David Ansen

Though the tale is told with crisp sangfroid and a wonderful twist, there's hardly a scene I haven't seen somewhere else.

Time Richard Corliss

When they get to canoodling and conniving, you won't ask for your money back.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Switching into a dramatic gear, Woody Allen surprises but often struggles in this dark morality tale.

The New Yorker David Denby

Allen's new movie, Match Point, devoted to lust, adultery, and murder, is the most vigorous thing he's done in years.

Slate Stephen Metcalf

Match Point starts out crisply and deliciously, but in the end, it's a chess problem crossed with an ethics exam.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

An efficient genre piece with a few provocative metaphysical trimmings; the mainly English cast is effective.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

One aspect certainly is remarkable. The dialogue is, at least to an American ear, authentic. Allen doesn't mention any aid on the script, so we are to assume that he wrote it himself.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The question that should be asked is whether Woody Allen has made a good movie this time out, and the honest answer is "almost."

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Rather than providing a foil for Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation" or embodying the mostly silent model for the painter Vermeer in "The Girl With One Pearl Earring," Johansson actually has to emote prodigiously here, and she is just not up to the task.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Johansson bequeaths the welcome sight of a talent in full bloom to this wilted, dark whimsy of a movie.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Match Point may well be a return to form but only for those who love "September" and "Interiors," movies populated by Bergman evacuees too inert and dreary to even crack a smile.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The movie wears thin as its style turns from light parody into affectation, and the plot, which certainly generates lots of anxiety, eventually settles for facile irony.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Match Point is a fatally neat exercise in detached craftsmanship, and maybe that's the best we can expect from Allen at this point.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Match Point is a perfectly presentable, entirely unremarkable domestic melodrama parked queasily between opera and realism, two irreconcilable forms if ever there were.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

This thin chronicle of bad behavior among the rich and self-obsessed is above all painfully derivative, borrowing wholesale from Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy" and echoes Allen's own "Crimes and Misdemeanors."

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

A modest and mildly pretentious mediocrity in the Woodman canon.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 198 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tasha R. gave it a1:
This film was a ridiculous pastiche of upper class England. 'Irish' was a grossly unbelievable character to say nothing of his awful accent, plot shallower than a sorority sister, dialogue unbelievable, we sat there wondering why we were wasting our lives watching it. Complete waste of a good cast. Disappointed in Allen, who usually pulls it off. This was dreadful.

Victor gave it a10:
Great movie!! But people already said that. It's beautiful how a certain thing which is seen at the beginning of the movie turns out to be most important. Yu've got to watch it to understand what I'm talking about.

Aaron M. gave it a9:
This movie draws you in. It works on all its levels - acting, plot, emotion. It proves itself to be sharp and well-crafted. Though I haven't seen many Woody Allen films, if he's had good and bad films, Match Point is definitely among the good.

Lydia H. gave it a10:
I was enthralled by this movie. The suspense was incredible and all the actors were perfect, as was the wonderful operatic background music. Hurrah for Woody Allen.

Rita P. gave it a2:
Hugely overrated film. Was so disappointed with it in so many ways. No character was believable or well-developed, the dialogue was rubbish, the plot seemed to have been hatched by a 6 year old and Scarlett Johanssen was completely wasted. She is too good for this banal crap.

Theresa H gave it a1:
The color palatte was so incredibly dull. The pretentious tone of the film made me giggle more than once.

Josh C gave it a10:
Allen's best film since "Crimes."

Match Point DreamWorks SKG

Match Point
DreamWorks SKG