Match Point.

Such hoopla in Cannes over a film just screened Out of Competition. As noted yesterday, AO Scott, blogging for the New York Times (come on, you knew the day had to come), seemed almost alarmed that his initial impression of Match Point was so very positive, while Andreas Kilb writes in today's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (and in German), "Match Point would be a worthy candidate for the Golden Palm [were it competing]. This film is an unexpected masterpiece."

How very long many of us have wanted to hear that said about a new film from Woody Allen, even if notes of caution are sounded, such as the one from the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, who's a little put off by Allen's London, looking to him as if it were filmed on "Planet Curtis." The Independent's Louise Jury hears similar criticisms from a handful of other British critics, though Sight and Sound editor Nick James does tell her, "It will work well in the States because it gives a very tourist's-eye view of Britain."

And the Americans are happy. While the Boston Herald's Stephen Schaefer simply seems delighted to have been "treated to the steamiest and sexiest flick of Woody Allen's career," Variety's Todd McCarthy telegraphs: "Well-observed and superbly cast picture is the filmmaker's best in quite a long time and as such reps an attractive potential acquisition for a US distrib keen to break Allen's recent string of BO flops." Stop.

Meantime, David Gritten reports in the Telegraph that Woody's going to be sticking to this evidently winning formula: His next film will also be shot in England and will also star Scarlett Johannson. And in the Los Angeles Times, Mary McNamara also reports on the post-screening press conference: "One by one, journalists, mostly from the UK and the US, ignored the cast members present - Johansson, Emily Mortimer and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers - to ask the director rather esoteric questions that seemed more about where Match Point fit in the Allen oeuvre, and what it signified to his future, than the film itself." Little wonder. A lot of us were getting worried.

Posted by dwhudson at May 13, 2005 2:02 AM