Top of the Otts in Film #20: Match Point

20. Match Point – As a Woody Allen agnostic, I cannot comment on where this stands in his catalogue. On its own, I find it brilliant, scripted well above most everything on the market. Jonathan Rhys Myers seems like he should be getting Jude Law’s roles, as he’s much more talented than him. Amongst the people he’s also much more talented than: Scarlett Johanssen. She ruins the classic kiss in the rainy field by bringing to it all the passion of soggy cardboard. To be fair though, Myers kind of ruins the romanticism of the scene too by bluntly putting his hand up in that ass, center screen. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVjfW-P5yZY) Overall, casting her as a struggling actress cruelly manipulated by a man she’s more attracted to than vice versa might have been unfair to her career on Allen’s part – it serves to highlight that as an actress she’s not that good and as a pin-up, maybe she’s not that hot? I mean, she’s hot, but seemlingly the kind that won’t age well. But Match Point will always be timeless.