Match Point

Ein Ass genau auf der Linie. Nur ein kleines Stück daneben, und es wäre raus. Aber Woody serviert in jeder Hinsicht millimetergenau. Ein Beweis dafür, dass die ideologischen Elemente der russischen Klassiker in modernen und kulturell unterschiedlichen Kulissen funktionieren können. (31.07.2013)

Wenn der Haupt-"Held“ von Woody Allens Film (der äußerst unsympathische Jonathan Rhys Meyers) Dostojewskis "Verbrechen und Strafe" liest, kann es nicht besonders gut ausgehen… Oder doch? Match Point ist ein hervorragender Film. Es macht nichts, dass in der ersten Stunde fast nichts Unerwartetes passiert, weil das, was dann und vor allem am Ende kommt, eine reichliche Wiedergutmachung ist. Manche sind der Meinung, dass der Film keinen Humor hat. Da muss ich aber widersprechen. Er hat ihn. Er ist durch und durch schwarz, aber er ist da. (10.07.2015)

Romance novel material. Or maybe even lust novel. After many years of not such good movies, Woody really needed the ball to fall on the right side of the net, even if it meant a drop shot. Moving the acting to London giving it a hint of Hitchcock won him the entire match. And as his following movies show, this was no swan song or stroke of luck. Thank god. (26.12.2008)

A brilliantly written and acted conversational drama, with an ending that, as you can see from the reviews here, many viewers will find hard to stomach. But it’s the denouement of the story, surprising, somewhat cynical, going against the established stereotypes, trampling on my idealistic soul, that gives the whole narrative the right poignancy (those for whom Columbo, Perry Mason or other detective stories are daily bread will probably be unpleasantly surprised). The only weakness I can see is the character of the detective, whose speech in the final five minutes (the way he suddenly gets up from bed or gesticulates comically when he reveals his theory) pushes the story to a kind of farce. But that's really just such a small blip on the beauty of the whole. (24.09.2006)

The "hard" cinematography and the narration going through an avalanche of dialogues with the absence of visual narration initially confuse the viewer, but the dream romance turns into a drama, then into a thriller, and the morality falls on its face into the mud. That’s quite an unorthodox way to go against the sunshine trend, which Allen does get to with a very shaggy insert from the detective office. However, it was probably all worth the feeling of Dostoyevsky turning uneasily in his grave a few times. (22.08.2014)