There is a certain tendency to crow about every new Woody Allen film as if it were a return to form, as if he were honour-bound to give us another Annie Hall, Manhattan or - well, take your pick from a man who's been making an average of one film per year for the last thirty years. His batting average of hits to misses over 40 or so films is undeniably impressive, as is the unprecedented level of creative freedom he enjoys.

Allen's films have gotten a pretty raw deal in the US since his well-reported separation from actress Mia Farrow, and his subsequent relationship with Farrow's adopted daughter Soon Yi. However, Match Point - his first film to be shot entirely outside his native New York - has been getting his best stateside reviews in years (though considering these same critics have been fawning over the inane Mrs. Henderson Presents may say more about their obsequious Anglophillia than anything else).

Former tennis-pro Christopher Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Myers) takes a coaching job at a prestigious London sports club, where he meets Tom Hewett (Mathew Goode). A shared love of opera introduces him to Hewett's wealthy, upper-class parents Alec and Eleanor (Brian Cox and Penelope Wilton) and his sweet-natured sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer) who develops an instant crush on the young Irishman. Chris returns her attention with affection, but no huge passion.

This he reserves for Tom's sultry girlfriend Nola (Scarlett Johannson), a struggling American actress who Tom's mother quietly (but insistently) disapproves of. By contrast, the Hewetts are immediately taken with Chris, and he soon climbs the ranks of Alec's company. Quickly becoming accustomed to a lifestyle of wealth and privilege, the tension wrought by Chris's increasingly torrid affair with Nola escalates to a point that can only end in tragedy.

In many ways, Match Point is like a younger, sexier version of another of Allen's films, Crimes and Misdemeanours, only without the funny bits. In the 1989 film, Martin Landau was a successful middle-aged ophthalmologist, driven to murder and wracked by guilt after his mistress (Anjelica Huston) threatens to reveal all to his wife. Match Point - amidst the various references to Dostoyevsky - continues the director's philosophical musing on the conceits of crime, punishment and infidelity, whilst framing the story around Chris's belief in the importance of blind luck in life.

The other big influence of Match Point seem to be the novels of Patricia Highsmith, whose charming sociopath Tom Ripley seems to be a starting point for Jonathan Rhys-Myers' Chris Wilton. But Rhys-Myers - perhaps typecast in a succession of roles as a dead-eyed psychotic - seems stilted and artificial where one imagines he should be demonstrate some chameleonic ability to blend into any situation. Perhaps it was Allen's intention to make Chris so plainly fake and self-serving, but it does make such a character hard to believe, let alone empathise with. However, the coldly stylish Match Point does not seem the sort of film that is hugely interested in empathy. There is much to enjoy here (as there is with the least of Allen's work), but it feels like too much of a retread of the superior Crimes and Misdemeanours. Great use of opera music, though.

Rated 15A (see IFCO website for details)
Match Point is released on 6th January 2006.
Match Point – Official website