Woody Allen serves an ace: ‘Match Point’

None of the characters in “Match Point” are very likable, but you will find yourself drawn into this Hitchcockian web of seduction, ambition and more. Here tennis is a metaphor for the fickleness of fate -- how life can turn dramatically, depending on which side of the net the ball drops.

Woody Allen does his best writing and directing in years with this elegantly crafted film, set in London instead of his usual New York. The humor is more cynical, with comparisons to his earlier “Crimes and Misdemeanors” but more satisfying.

Chris (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) is a poor Irish tennis pro who leaves the circuit to work at a posh London club. His good looks and quiet manner gets him invited by Tom, one of the club’s members, to join his family at their box at the opera. There he meets Tom’s pretty sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer), and she is smitten.

Later, when Chris meets a cool blond with “come-hither” eyes named Nola (Scarlett Johansson), sparks fly immediately. His body language becomes sexually charged, and they flirt brazenly until Tom introduces Nola as his fiancee.

So Chris takes up with Chloe, whose wealthy father (Brian Cox) has taken a liking to him and puts him on the fast track at one of his companies. As a man of means, Chris relishes the lifestyle it now affords him.

At the same time, he works every opportunity he can to get a glimpse of Nola. You just know this will lead to big trouble.

I won’t spoil the pleasure of the many unexpected plot twists in the story. Suffice to say that “Match Point” ranks as one of the top seeded films of 2005.

* SUSANNE PEREZ lives in Costa Mesa and is an executive assistant for a financial services company.

Brosnan drops ‘Bonds’ in comedic ‘Matador’

In his latest and most enjoyable role ever, Pierce Brosnan runs as far away as he can from the dashing secret agents he normally plays. James Bond and Remington Steele are very distant relatives to the burned-out, boozing hit man he plays in “The Matador.”

As aging hired killer Julian Noble, he looks grizzled, and weary of the friendless world he has created for himself.

The film starts with Noble on assignment to assassinate a client’s corporate rival in Mexico City. Taking a drunken break from the murder job, he meets Danny Wright in the hotel bar.

Danny is a financially desperate American businessman, well played by Greg Kinnear. He is shy and conventional in sharp contrast to the wild and crazy character Brosnan brings to the screen. They strike up an unlikely friendship that jump starts a strange buddy-movie formula.

Beginning with raucous scenes at a bullfight, two men spend the rest of the movie revealing their inner lives to each other.

Unexpected developments are generously sprinkled with real humor as the ironic story of Mr. Wright and Mr. Noble unfolds.

Hope Davis is charming and sexy as the businessman’s wife who learns and comes to understand the trade of her husband’s new friend.

The equal parts of insight and whimsy in the plot kept the middle-aged audience at my screening laughing throughout. It has many amusing moments but nothing to be taken seriously on any level.

If you need a mindless getaway from your everyday cares and woes, “The Matador” may be the comic relief you’re looking for.

* JOHN DEPKO is a Costa Mesa resident and a senior investigator for the Orange County public defender’s office.

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