The very first thing we see in Match Point after the opening credits are done is a tennis ball being shot back and forth over a net between two off camera rackets in slow motion. Eventually, the ball hits upon the net and starts to wobble back and forth. Which side of the court the ball decides to fall on can change the very course of the game. This is a very fitting opening image, as the film follows a man who is constantly wobbling back and forth upon a moral line. Which side he decides to fall upon will change his life and the lives of those around him. Writer-director Woody Allen has written a surprisingly dark and eerily plausible little dramatic thriller that is increasingly engaging as the story and its characters slowly grab a hold of you. Not only is this probably one of Allen's strongest films in recent memory, but it is easily one of the better releases of 2005.

Much of the joy I had in watching Match Point was knowing very little about the film beforehand, so in all fairness, I will try to reveal as little as possible about the film's plot. Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) was once on his way to the top of the professional tennis circuit, but never quite had the ability to play against the greats. Moving to London and looking for a fresh start, he gets a job as a tennis instructor until he can figure out what he wants to do with his life. It is at this job that he meets a man who will change his life, Tom Hewitt (Matthew Goode) - the wealthy son of one of the richest families in the U.K. The two quickly become friends, and Tom invites Chris into his privileged world where Chris quickly wins favor with the family and even wins the affections of Tom's sister, Chloe (Emily Mortimer).

Before long, Chris is seen as one of the family, and is even offered a high level job at the company that Tom's father owns. It is during this time that he meets Nola (Scarlet Johansson), a struggling American actress trying to make it in the London theater world, and Tom's future fiance. Tom's family is not as thrilled about Nola as they are about Chris, but there is a definite attraction between her and Chris which begins a secret affair. Nola is hesitant to betray the man she's promised herself too, but when Tom breaks off their relationship, it becomes harder for the two to deny their passionate feelings for one another. The deeper Chris goes into the relationship, the more he will rely on deceit - not only to guard his secret, but to also protect this new lifestyle he has come to enjoy.

Much like the tragic Opera music that makes up the film's soundtrack, Match Point is a personal tragedy about a man who is pushed to limits he didn't even know he had. The film is a compelling, dark, and quite unflinching look at an increasing world of lies and deception. Although the film has mainly been advertised as a forbidden love affair film, it goes and works much deeper than that. It is about chance and how the little things can affect our lives. Allen's screenplay starts off innocently enough, but it slowly and surely begins to hook its claws into you and refuses to let go for the rest of the film's running time. Like the best thrillers, it draws you in so subtly that you almost don't realize that it's happening. And just when you think you've figured the film out, it throws a curve that you may not see coming, but like the best of curves, it plays fair, makes sense, and does not seem desperate and cheap.

The real miracle that Match Point pulls off, however, is that it is able to explore the dark side of human nature without asking us to sympathize or without overly humanizing the characters' motives. At the same time, the characters, no matter how desperate and twisted their morals become, never become so hateful that we don't care about them. Allen achieves this tricky balance by showing us the world through their eyes, and by allowing us to share in their twisted rationalizing of their own actions. The film never asks us to understand what they're doing, it just gives us their reasoning. The lead character of Chris is a particularly interesting study as we see him change from a washed up almost-celebrity, to a man of high society, to a man who does not know what kind of life he wants anymore. He is at a constant struggle with himself to keep his life in balance, even though he himself is not sure if it is what he wants. Compare this to the film, Derailed, which came out a couple months ago, and also dealt with a man who was trying to keep his life together despite an affair with another woman and an increasing web of lies and deceit. Whereas Derailed treated the story as some sort of cartoon revenge fantasy where the lead character turned into a gun-toting vigilante that we were supposed to cheer for, Match Point is too smart for that. The lies and the resulting pain are all the more real and crushing because the screenplay treats its characters like real people.

A story such as this needs the right cast to tell it, and here Allen has done a wonderful job. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is soft-spoken, yet strong, in the lead role - a very complex character who must go through a range of emotions throughout the film. He is cold and distant, but not so much so as it feels like he is alienating the audience. Scarlet Johansson also gives a multi-layered performance in a very difficult role. Although she threatens to destroy the relationship Chris has with his unsuspecting wife, Chloe, she is not an "evil" character. Johansson is able to make us understand her side, and make her very relatable. It makes Michael Bay's comments last summer about how his failed summer blockbuster, The Island, flopped because she's an inexperienced actress all the more laughable. And, like just about all of Woody Allen's films, the soundtrack is almost a character in itself. His use of classic opera recordings throughout the entire film (complete with pop and hiss sound effects as they're being played directly off a record) sets an appropriate sad and almost distant mood.

Match Point is not without its flaws (it's a bit slow to start for one thing), but it is by far Allen's most assured and tightly written work in quite a long time. The film is a slow burn that eventually erupts into a quiet, yet powerful, explosion that will stay with you long after you've walked out of the theater. The film is currently stuck in a fairly limited release, but the effort to seek it out is highly worth it, I believe. This one took me by surprise, and hopefully you will have a similar experience when you see it.

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