Comments on: Match Point (2005) http://monoglot.com/2006/02/03/match-point/ There are 7,000 languages in the world that I do not know how to speak. Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:25:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 By: neil http://monoglot.com/2006/02/03/match-point/#comment-78 neil Mon, 06 Feb 2006 07:50:08 +0000 http://monoglot.com/2006/02/03/match-point/#comment-78 haven't seen the player, but in the other two the protagonists are not basically decent and normal for the first 2/3 of the movie. sometimes good people just get caught up in incestuous relationships which can only be resolved via morally questionable high drama. just ask mia (i think most people are happy for allen's "happy ending" love life, while despising what he did to get there). he's only a "monster" if morality and justice exist, and they don't/can't because there's no god. i realize this is a slightly boring argument, but he pretty much says this in every movie (i think the "sheee-sus! what's the point of liv-ing?! ..sheee-sus!" routine basically covers it). anyhow, that would be the devil's advocate position in dostoevsky (grand inquisitor at least), right? oh, right. haven’t seen the player, but in the other two the protagonists are not basically decent and normal for the first 2/3 of the movie. sometimes good people just get caught up in incestuous relationships which can only be resolved via morally questionable high drama. just ask mia (i think most people are happy for allen’s “happy ending” love life, while despising what he did to get there).

he’s only a “monster” if morality and justice exist, and they don’t/can’t because there’s no god. i realize this is a slightly boring argument, but he pretty much says this in every movie (i think the “sheee-sus! what’s the point of liv-ing?! ..sheee-sus!” routine basically covers it). anyhow, that would be the devil’s advocate position in dostoevsky (grand inquisitor at least), right?

oh, right.

]]> By: monoglot http://monoglot.com/2006/02/03/match-point/#comment-77 monoglot Mon, 06 Feb 2006 04:46:10 +0000 http://monoglot.com/2006/02/03/match-point/#comment-77 Hmm. Do <cite>The Player</cite>, <cite>A Clockwork Orange</cite>, and <cite>The Silence of the Lambs</cite> end happily? It's the sympathy-for-the-devil effect; we identify with the protagonist by virtue of getting to see things from his viewpoint, and then we're tied in moral knots when justice doesn't quite come. I have a weakness for movies of this type. I don't think Allen is claiming JR-M behaves morally. He's just claiming he is lucky, and luck has nothing to do with justice. There is no divine retribution; the monster lives happily ever after. The CGI is in the beautiful slow-motion shot of the ring being tossed into the Thames, or did you think they just kept throwing rings at the water until one didn't fall in and bounced perfectly on the rail? Hmm. Do The Player, A Clockwork Orange, and The Silence of the Lambs end happily? It’s the sympathy-for-the-devil effect; we identify with the protagonist by virtue of getting to see things from his viewpoint, and then we’re tied in moral knots when justice doesn’t quite come. I have a weakness for movies of this type.

I don’t think Allen is claiming JR-M behaves morally. He’s just claiming he is lucky, and luck has nothing to do with justice. There is no divine retribution; the monster lives happily ever after.

The CGI is in the beautiful slow-motion shot of the ring being tossed into the Thames, or did you think they just kept throwing rings at the water until one didn’t fall in and bounced perfectly on the rail?

]]> By: neil http://monoglot.com/2006/02/03/match-point/#comment-75 neil Sat, 04 Feb 2006 06:21:04 +0000 http://monoglot.com/2006/02/03/match-point/#comment-75 where was the cgi? where was the cgi?

]]> By: neil http://monoglot.com/2006/02/03/match-point/#comment-74 neil Sat, 04 Feb 2006 06:18:22 +0000 http://monoglot.com/2006/02/03/match-point/#comment-74 jon rhys-meyers deserves a lifetime achievement razzie just for this performance. awful. otherwise this was pretty much the best of the '05 films i didn't like (which was most of them). i've decided that this film had a happy ending. what do you think? dostoevsky: if there's no god then everything is permitted. allen: there's no god. morality must then be whatever you can get away with (thank luck). jr-s therefore acts morally .. and voila! happy family ending! jon rhys-meyers deserves a lifetime achievement razzie just for this performance. awful. otherwise this was pretty much the best of the ‘05 films i didn’t like (which was most of them). i’ve decided that this film had a happy ending. what do you think? dostoevsky: if there’s no god then everything is permitted. allen: there’s no god. morality must then be whatever you can get away with (thank luck). jr-s therefore acts morally .. and voila! happy family ending!

]]> By: Jessica http://monoglot.com/2006/02/03/match-point/#comment-73 Jessica Sat, 04 Feb 2006 02:05:22 +0000 http://monoglot.com/2006/02/03/match-point/#comment-73 I hated Match Point. HATED it. I hated Match Point. HATED it.

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