Match Point
DreamWorks Distribution | Release Date: December 28, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
One reason for the fascination of Woody Allen's Match Point is that each and every character is rotten. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Whether it's simply the change of locale, or a change in Allen's psyche, something is up in Match Point. With a dark view of humankind, and of the vagaries of chance - bad luck, good luck, dumb luck - the filmmaker has crafted a wicked, winning gem. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Allen's most satisfying film since "Bullets Over Broadway" (1994) and his most compelling since "Crimes and Misdemeanors" (1989). Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
To call Match Point Woody Allen's comeback would be an understatement - it's the most vital return to form for any director since Robert Altman made "The Player." Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
An unpredictable, unusual, consistently engrossing drama of a kind that has almost disappeared from Hollywood. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's a sexy thriller, tautly constructed, deeply acted and heartfelt, despite a cool and knowing tone. Read full review
90
The New York TimesDana Stevens
The gloom of random, meaningless existence has rarely been so much fun, and Mr. Allen's bite has never been so sharp, or so deep. A movie this good is no laughing matter. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Not only could one argue that this is the best "serious" work the director has ever attempted, but it's presented in a way that even the most seasoned Allen fan will have difficulty recognizing the iconic filmmaker's fingerprints. Read full review
88
PremierePeter Debruge
Woody's a master wordsmith, and here he's crafted a bit of audience-friendly fare that's smart without feeling exclusionary. It's a portrait of elite society--and the hangers-on who wish to penetrate it--made in an surprisingly accessible way. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Allen, rejuvenated by foreign settings, makes us appreciate posh parts of England as he always did Manhattan. (Credit cinematographer Remi Adefarasin for showing us how seductive upper-crust London can be.) Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Match Point begins to recall Hitchcock as it unfolds, although it wouldn't be right to call it a thriller. This is still very much a Woody Allen movie, populated by upper-class characters who chatter about literature and fine art, frequent museums and designer boutiques and accidentally run into each other on the street with uncanny regularity. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Woody Allen's best movie in years means to trip us up: Sexual sizzle. London instead of Manhattan. Brit actors. Dark humor with a sting that leaves welts. You bet it's a change. And it looks good on the Woodman. Read full review
88
New York PostKyle Smith
Its many pleasures derive from the way this drama unfolds unexpectedly from the characters rather than imposing itself on them. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
What fans want are good movies. This one isn't particularly funny or romantic, but it's gripping and tragic. It asks some nasty, yet profound, questions about human desire and behavior. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Rhys-Meyers and Johansson work well together - they both know how to project glossiness and guile. Read full review
80
EmpireAdam Smith
Even for non-Allen fans this has all the appeal of a good story well told and capped with a deliciously vicious little twist. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
A sort of romance noir -- spruced up in pressed white linens -- this British-made film is elegant, uncompromising and oh-so- veddy nasty. Read full review
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Well-observed and superbly cast picture is the filmmaker's best in quite a long time. Read full review
80
Film ThreatJeremy Mathews
Allen covers it all with intelligent dialogue and unexpected moments of clever visual storytelling. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
It pretty much keeps its pulse steady, its blood cold and its nerves tamped down -- which, combined with cinematographer Remi Adefarasin's architectural Hitchcockian flourishes, lends a queasy, cool air to the proceedings. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
Match Point is fantastic to look at, sharply dramatic and Allen is--who knew?--a master of suspense. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The movie is unexpectedly disciplined and enjoyable. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Proof that Allen, who many have dismissed with his last few forgettable films, is still a filmmaking force. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Allen's new movie, Match Point, devoted to lust, adultery, and murder, is the most vigorous thing he's done in years. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
An efficient genre piece with a few provocative metaphysical trimmings; the mainly English cast is effective. Read full review
70
SlateStephen Metcalf
Match Point starts out crisply and deliciously, but in the end, it's a chess problem crossed with an ethics exam. Read full review
70
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
One aspect certainly is remarkable. The dialogue is, at least to an American ear, authentic. Allen doesn't mention any aid on the script, so we are to assume that he wrote it himself. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Switching into a dramatic gear, Woody Allen surprises but often struggles in this dark morality tale. Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Though the tale is told with crisp sangfroid and a wonderful twist, there's hardly a scene I haven't seen somewhere else. Read full review
70
TimeRichard Corliss
When they get to canoodling and conniving, you won't ask for your money back. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Just when the seemingly endless scenes of Johansson's nagging threaten to sink Match Point for good, the movie becomes the thriller that early reports promised. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The question that should be asked is whether Woody Allen has made a good movie this time out, and the honest answer is "almost." Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Match Point may well be a return to form but only for those who love "September" and "Interiors," movies populated by Bergman evacuees too inert and dreary to even crack a smile. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The movie wears thin as its style turns from light parody into affectation, and the plot, which certainly generates lots of anxiety, eventually settles for facile irony.
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Rather than providing a foil for Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation" or embodying the mostly silent model for the painter Vermeer in "The Girl With One Pearl Earring," Johansson actually has to emote prodigiously here, and she is just not up to the task. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Johansson bequeaths the welcome sight of a talent in full bloom to this wilted, dark whimsy of a movie. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Match Point is a perfectly presentable, entirely unremarkable domestic melodrama parked queasily between opera and realism, two irreconcilable forms if ever there were. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Match Point is a fatally neat exercise in detached craftsmanship, and maybe that's the best we can expect from Allen at this point. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
This thin chronicle of bad behavior among the rich and self-obsessed is above all painfully derivative, borrowing wholesale from Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy" and echoes Allen's own "Crimes and Misdemeanors." Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
A modest and mildly pretentious mediocrity in the Woodman canon. Read full review
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