Oscar Rush, part 3: Match Point

I can't say I'm a huge Woody Allen fan. I like Annie Hall, Everyone Says I Love You, and Sweet and Lowdown, among others. But Celebrity was one of the most annoying films I've ever seen, where Allen pointlessly replaced himself with Kenneth Branagh only to give us two hours of an equally neuorotic, talkative, emasculated and charmless Allen alter-ego.

With Match Point, Allen steps out of both his beloved New York and his usual romantic comedy genre to give us a sexy thriller set in London. Failed tennis pro Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) becomes friends with Tom Hewitt (Matthew Goode) and Tom's fiance, the aspiring actress Nola (Scarlett Johansson). He starts dating Tom's perky, sweet sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer) but begins an affair with the sexy Nola.

As Chris has to work harder and harder to cover his affair, the plot twists might remind some of Fatal Attraction, but this movie is truly an Allen original. Brilliantly using tennis as a metaphor, he explores the debate between being "lucky" and being "good." While I originally wanted The Squid and The Whale to win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, I could just as easily hope for Allen's nominated screenplay as well. Allen's film crawls under your skin and stays there like an embedded thorn. Creepy and uncomfortable, it stayed with me long after the film was finished (a cliche, I know, but in this case it's actually true).

In interviews Allen has referred to Meyers as "gorgeous" and Johansson as "sexy," and you can tell he loves looking at them through his camera. Every scene is beautifully lit, every angle highlighting their eyes or skin or, especially, lips. The ubiquitous film poster cut off half of the actors' faces, reducing them to sharp cheekbones and perfect jawlines pointing right to their distinctive, pillowy lips. Even Chris' first pick-up line to Nola is, "Has anyone ever told you you have very sensual lips?" This easily qualifies as one of the sexiest films in recent momory, especially since Allen himself is nowhere to be seen (he's a boner buzzkill for sure, although I couldn't help but think how itchy and uncomfortable the make-out scene on what looked like a field of wheat would be - I'm such a nerd).

I don't know what to make of Meyers. Looking like a cross between a male model and a lizard, he's a hard guy to root for (even before he starts making really bad decisions). His cold, unenthused Golden Globe speech, when he won for the TV movie Elvis, didn't really add to my opinion of him. But he is talented and sexy, and I couldn't help but think what would happen if his sneaky, morally dubious character ran into Matt Damon's similar one from The Talented Mr. Ripley. Maybe a Crazy Sexy Guy Walk-Off! If only...