Ad In - Woody Allen's Matchpoint

Isn't it time people stopped punishing Woody Allen for being Woody Allen (being him seems to be enough suffering in itself) and stopped expecting him to re-make Annie Hall? His new film, Match Point, is a wonderful character study, written with mastery, and directed with an attention to detail that shows that Woody is not bored with the film process. The comments I’ve heard about Match Point seem strange to me. "Nasty characters." "Wickedly funny." The characters are flawed, evil at times, but studiously human. The laughs, and there are a few, are more titters than roars. There’s nothing silly or goofy about the film. The laughs are nervous ones. Match Point has the feel of homage to Hitchcock – a suspense piece, set in Britain, McGuffins galore. Match Point moves the pieces around the chessboard, all right, but with searing commentary on the characters. It’s supposed to be about luck – things that happen or don’t for no particular reason. What is more interesting is that people create impossible situations, and different people handle them in different ways. See it but don’t expect the Groucho mask.