Would You Rather Be Lucky Than Good?

Match Point -- (4/5 stars)

This was a good movie. It is, as most reviewers are saying, not typical of a Woody Allen movie. The movie is primarily a psychological drama/thriller, especially towards the end of the movie, but there are still plenty of comedic moments throughout, especially by focusing a laser on social climbers and the traits that they possess: immorality, the willingness to sacrifice what is good to achieve their goals, and lack of regard for others on their road to success. The primary plot device in the movie is the main character's social and financial success through marriage to the daughter of a wealthy businessman, and the affair he ends up starting with the girlfriend of his brother in law. Eventually, through this love triangle, chaos ensues, and we find out what this man will sacrifice for money, attraction, and other selfish desires.

It is a plot driven movie, the characters are for the most part caricatures of real people. But that is okay, the inner workings of these people are not what is interesting, but rather what might happen when certain stereotypes of people are put into the situation that the plot provides. It only gets better as it goes along, especially picking up about halfway into the movie, all the way to a spectacular finale. The audience clapped, it is definitely worth seeing.

However, there is one major problem I have with the movie, and the reason why I don't rate it higher. This is also something I've never said about a movie before. Scarlett Johannson, who has the affair with the main character, is the worst thing about this movie. Her acting is simply off. The character she portrays requires an element of arrogance, and an element of melodrama, which simply does not suit her. I do not know if this is because she cannot play this type of part, or because she was not directed correctly (we all know that the wrong director can make the right actress look bad; take Natalie Portman in the new Star Wars movies for example), but in her you see the one thing I don't like seeing in performances: you can obviously tell she is acting. In past roles, she has been in movies that are primarily character-driven instead of plot-driven, and she has succeeded well. Her performance in Lost in Translation was spectacular, her others are good as well. So while I still like the movie, being a fan of hers, on some level I'm disappointed to see how she turned out in this. Hopefully it is just an isolated case.