‘Match Point’ serves loveless drama

There's a saying, something about how close comedy and drama really are. Maybe it's the happy clown versus sad clown effect. Or the Jim Carrey as the Pet Detective versus Jim Carrey as the “Eternal Sunshine” guy. Or is it Adam Sandler in “Billy Madison” or “Spanglish”? I forget.

All I know is that if Woody Allen, one of the greatest comedic geniuses of the last half century, can pull off something like “Match Point,” there must be some truth to that statement, whatever it is.

“Match Point,” which has inevitably drawn comparisons to his 1989 drama “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” has come after several critical disappointments in recent years (“Anything Else,” “Hollywood Ending”). It is truly a return to form, not in a comedic sense, but simply in a masterful writing and directing sense. The entire film was shot in Britain, depicting a terribly rich family wrought with enough superficiality to make Holden Caulfield jump into the Thames.

As the title suggests, the lead character is a former tennis pro, Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), who marries Chloe (Emily Mortimer), the daughter of a wealthy businessman. The only problem is that while Chris may have fallen into incredible amounts of wealth, he does not fall in love with his wife. Instead, Chris pursues his brother-in-law’s fiancee Nola (Scarlett Johansson), a hopelessly aspiring actress who never quite met the approval of Chloe’s mother. The two become lovers, sending Chris into a deadly spiral of lies and cover-ups.

As Chloe says, luck can be very important, but it also takes a lot of hard work to succeed, and this might be the flaw of each person in the strange love triangle.

Chris’ impetuous nature leads him to an obsession with Nola, forcing out the other, more promising, aspects of his life. He suffers at work for using hours each day to rendezvous with his mistress, and his home life becomes nearly nonexistent as Nola dominates his mind.

Chloe is insistent on having a baby, an idea Chris does not take with much enthusiasm. Her single-mindedness blinds her to her delinquent husband’s ways, and she remains clueless about the affair. Chris describes their relationship as purely mechanical, and leads Nola to believe that he only loves her, which would be true if his self-love did not get in the way.

Nola fails acting auditions one after the other, but keeps trying despite the harsh criticism of Chloe’s mother. She obsesses over her relationship with Chris, who drives her to a nervous breakdown after months of leading her on.

For a romantic drama, “Match Point” is about as loveless as a Hollywood marriage. Rhys-Meyers superbly portrays the lying, promiscuous husband turned madman with his cool nerve and ever-increasingly emotional visage.

Johansson, known for her “nice girl” roles (“Lost in Translation,” “In Good Company”), plays the temptress with convincing tension.

In “Match Point,” dialogue and character development reign supreme, and the disquietude builds like a noose slowly tightening with each plot twist.

Grade: B+