Is it better to be good or to be lucky? This is the question that “Match Point,” rightly hailed as Woody Allen’s masterpiece, seeks to answer. This film paints an exceptional, yet unusual, portrait of how morality and fidelity are lived out in the human existence.
Chris Wilton, played by Jonathon Rhys-Meyers, is a former tennis pro turned instructor who we follow as he navigates through a new beginning in London. By chance, as the theme is prevalent throughout the entire film, he meets and becomes friendly with the likeable and witty Tom Hewett, a wealthy and elite member of a well-known British family. This seemingly random meeting spurs a friendship, leading to Chris’s eventual courtship of Tom’s sister, Chloe.
Although it begins as a character study, the real drama heats up with the introduction of Scarlett Johansson’s character, Nola, a femme-fatale and the fiancé of Tom. Chris falls for Nola and they begin a surreptitious affair.
From this point on, the boundaries of morality are blurred and wrong actions become justifiable. The audience is taken on a climactic journey in which the old adage of “the ends justify the means” is evaluated, eventually leading to an unpredictable ending. The audience is forced to assess whether integrity is practical, and also what one is willing to give up for socio-economic comfort.
However, this does not leave the viewer feeling morally superior. Rather, the viewer is able to identify with the situation and is forced to evaluate his or her own morality.
Johansson’s portrayal of the seductive and beautiful vulnerability of Nola lends itself to the success of the film in capturing the realness of raw human emotion. But the real break-out performance is that of Rhys-Meyers, who is captivating from start to finish with his dark portrayal of Chris Wilton. The sexual tension between the two makes fidelity seem like a chore and also a necessary evil.
Throughout the course of the film, the viewer comes to see that our lives are not determined primarily by our actions, but rather, much of our fate is left to chance. That the course of one’s destiny is reduced to factors that are out of our hands is the great tragedy of life. To be lucky becomes the most important thing, rather than being “good,” thus reducing the importance of justice to a secondary value.
“Match Point” definitively answers the originally posed question by asserting that to be lucky is, in fact, the most important factor in life.
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