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May 07, 2006
Match Point
I am very impressed with Woody's Allen's latest film, Match Point. It didn't seem like a Woody Allen film -- it didn't explore relationships ad nauseum through endless conversations, and the cast is small. Visually, it's very satisfying, and the acting is fantastic. It's the best movie I've seen in a while.
Unfortunately for the audience, it makes you anxious from the very first scene -- which makes perfect sense because they story is filled with anxiety of different sorts, but it's hard to sit back and eat popcorn while you're tearing your hair out. You're anxious in a way that you'd be on a daily basis -- it's not artificially generated by cliffhangers. You feel anxious for the main character and for others, and the tension builds. Later scenes seem more charged because of this. Toward the end, I got up and paced just becuase I couldn't take the stress, but my reaction enhanced my experience of the plot and brought me into the story.
Match Point requires a bit of a leap of faith at one point -- I find it hard to believe the main character takes the action he does. Still, it's worth renting if you haven't seen it. The characters are all extremely well cast, and Woody Allen will do a great job of messing with your head as you watch it.
Posted by csageday at May 7, 2006 12:41 PM
Comments
What caused the anxiety if not relationships and not "cliffhangers", e.g., plot devices?
Posted by: Mom at May 7, 2006 03:43 PM
It's something about the way the scenes were set up. The movie starts out with a job interview, and each subsequent scene has some similar anxiety related to a new social situation.
There's also a good deal of silence in the movie. I think Woody Allen might be using a bunch of film tricks, like the non-chalant scene that seems a bit too good to be true, or an illicit love affair scene happening in plain sight, except he withholds the retribution we expect in most of these scenes. The wife doesn't show up, etc. The music is there climaxing toward something, but life goes on. We're being set up to see the protagonist fail -- we expect him to because the movie is about luck and he has tons of it -- but he continually gets away with things.
I guess I meant that you don't have your usual obvious cliffhangers -- so-and-so is dying and what's his name can't get to the hospital in time or whatever -- it's just one long cliffhanger. There are certainly some cliffhangers at the end and relationships are involved, but in the beginning you're just generally anxious as a result of the way scenes are set up. For instance, the opening sequence is a shot of a tennis net. You see the ball going back and forth. Then you see it hit the net, and the frame freezes with it just above the net -- it could go either way (a voice over explains this), then it cuts to a different scene. There's no resolution of what actually happened for the audience. I guess that set the tone.
Posted by: Cindy at May 7, 2006 04:25 PM