It’s very rare for me to see a movie where the story revolves around how an antagonist (in this case, a murderer) gets very lucky in getting away with a crime or several crimes committed against unsuspecting and innocent people and where the ending ironically celebrates a somewhat successful and blissful life over a toast of champagne. The story is about a guy who married a woman from an upper class English family; lived a posh life watching plays, musicals and operas from an exclusive opera box; maintained a very active sexual affair with a stunning albeit a struggling actress; and had a baby boy in the end with his wife who once had fertility problems. All these he got as if getting away from killing his mistress, his unborn child and an innocent old lady - weren’t enough luck for him. This is the case of the movie Match Point starring Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, and Brian Cox, among others.
Chris Wilton (Rhys-Meyers), a poor Irish lad, was a tennis pro player before settling in London. He had to quit due to his career that has already reached a stagnant point. Although his peers who believed in him said he just needed a little more patience so he could give the top seeds a run for their money, he decided he would give up playing and become a tennis instructor, instead, for an elite club in London. He got along very well with his first student, Tom, who immediately invited him to join a family gathering, where he met his soon-to-be wife Chloe, Tom’s younger sister.
Chris had made a very good impression on Chloe’s parents so he was offered a position in one of her dad’s companies. He was groomed to be the perfect son-in-law, who would eventually hold a major position of the company in the future. In yet another family occasion, Chris came across a beautiful woman whom he later knew as Nola Rice (Johansson), Tom’s fiancée. Chris learned that she was a struggling American actress trying her luck in England. He was instantly attracted to Nola’s come hither look as what Tom called it but out of respect to Tom, he kept his distance. Besides, he was already very intimate with Chloe and the family was expecting them to announce their wedding plans.
Eventually, Chris and Chloe got married and everyone was happy, even Chris, who still had lustful fantasies for Nola. Nola, on the other hand, couldn’t get the thumbs up from Tom’s mother, Eleanor, who thinks that Nola isn’t good enough for her son. During one of Eleanor’s innuendo-inspired speech in front of Nola and Tom, she once again offended her son’s fiancée, who became upset and walked out of the house. Chris saw Nola and followed her to the wheat fields, where he took advantage of her emotional fragility and kissed her. One thing led to another and Chris finally got what he wanted.
Because of what happened, Chris became more sexually attracted to Nola than he had ever been before but Nola tried to do the right thing by not giving any meaning to what happened between them. She told Chris they were both engaged to different people and that she was soon to become his sister-in-law.
In a surprising turn of events, Tom suddenly announced his break up with Nola because he fell in love with another woman. That gave Chris more reason to pursue Nola but she was nowhere to be found so for the time being, he contented himself with his work and wife, who was still trying hard to conceive a baby with him by going to fertility clinics. After a few years, Chris saw Nola in an art gallery where he was going to meet with his wife one day. He desperately wanted to see Nola after missing her presence for a long time and even in the presence of his wife, he quietly asked for Nola’s phone number. Their sexual affair began again and this time, it was more passionate or obsessive for both of them.
To cut the long story short, Chris succeeded in his plot to kill Nola. He also killed his own unborn child and an innocent old lady in the process. He said, sometimes the innocent are killed to give way to a grander scheme or something to that effect. The police initially concluded it was a drug and money-related murder of the old woman, who was killed first and that Nola, who lived next door, came home and was shot next – a case that according to the police was a classic example of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. What they didn’t know was the murder was all planned by Chris to make it look like a robbery case - that the old woman was the primary victim and Nola, a coincidental victim. There was one detective, however, who theorized that Chris was actually the culprit. His theory was very accurate in all sense of Chris’s involvement of the murders. The only problem he encountered in the end was that a certain ring owned by the old woman that was stolen by Chris was found in the possession of a drug addict who was apprehended the day or two after the murders. That made the police more convinced that it was, indeed, a drug-related murder. But the truth was, Chris threw all the jewelries owned by the old woman into the river simply to get rid of evidence and the ring missed a few inches from the river and was picked up by the drug addict. In other words, Chris had been ultra lucky from the very start until the end of the movie.
What I admire about this movie is its bold and bodaciously daring approach to its theme of injustice, of committing several crimes and getting away with them and of depicting the triumph of bad over good. Not that I approve of or appreciate the wrongful acts committed by Chris or the immorality of everything he did but the film makers were brave enough to go beyond the usual or ordinary. In terms of acting, the lead actors displayed their adeptness in representing their characters especially Rhys-Meyers and Johansson, who both gave very convincing portrayals to Chris and Nola, respectively. The supporting actors could also hold their own although they only had limited screen times compared to the leads.
My appreciation, however, ends in the movie’s approach and technicalities. The theme itself disturbs my moral principles and foundations that I couldn’t almost believe they make movies like this one where the bad guy gets exonerated and favored by luck and virtually by everything in the end. I was taken aback when the ending depicted a happy family (Chris and Chloe, Tom and his wife, and their parents) wherein everybody welcomed a future member inside Chloe’s womb. I was expecting that justice would be served, that Chris would be apprehended or be held responsible for Nola’s, his unborn child’s and the old woman’s murders, that there was a major twist just right before the credits start rolling, that somehow I would see a handcuff or a prison cell where Chris would be paying the price of everything for the rest of his life. But they all had a cheerful celebration by opening a bottle of expensive champagne – a very ironic celebration of life at the expense of three innocent lives sacrificed by Chris for his own good. Of course, they all didn’t know about the truth except Chris but how the movie ended bothered me a lot. I would say, though, that Nola’s (Scarlett Johansson) come hither look and her seductive appeal, in general, were very compelling and that she gave me many sleepless nights after watching the movie (winks).
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