MATCH POINT (2005) 3 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer, Matthew Goode, Brian Cox and Penelope Wilton. Written and directed by Woody Allen. Rated R. Running time: Approx: 124 mins.

        Luck is the centerpiece of Woody Allen's Match Point, a cynical drama about ambition and obsession.

        Set in England, the movie fades in on a tennis net. We watch the ball going back and forth, back and forth as a narrator explains about luck. 'The man who said I'd rather be lucky than good saw deeply into life. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. ... There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net, and for a split second it can either go forward or fall back. With a little luck, it goes forward and you win ... or maybe it doesn't, and you lose.”

        The scene fades with a ball spinning on top of the net, and we never know which way the it falls. But it doesn't matter, because it's a foreshadowing of events to come.

        Allen's protagonist is Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a one-time tennis pro who takes a job as an instructor at a private club.

        As luck would have it, he is befriended by Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), a young man from a wealthy family. Chris charms his way into the hearts of the Hewetts, eventually marrying Tom's sister, Chloe (Emily Mortimer), and taking a high-paying job in her father-in-law's firm.

        Chris should feel like the luckiest young man in the world, but he risks it all because of his obsession with Nola (Scarlett Johansson), an alluring would-be actress and Tom's fiancée.

        After Tom and Nola break up, Chris pursues her, thus beginning a double life and dangerous game that could cost him everything — if he is discovered.

        Match Point is reminiscent of Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors. The difference is in Allen's perspective. In Crimes, Martin Landau gets away with murder by proxy because, Allen postulates, God is blind to the injustices of the world.

        In his latest feature, it is simple luck that determines a person's fate and destiny.

        This is Allen's most perceptive, adult and finest work in years. It is as if filming in and around London rejuvenated his creative juices. The plotting is tight and concise, the characters well-rounded and developed.

        Rhys Meyers is charming and sincere as Chris. He is a man who wants to get ahead, but not really make any extra effort to do so. When applying for his job at the club, he explains that he quit the pro tennis circuit because he was tired of the traveling and knew he could never rise to the level of the sport's superstars.

        It is such insight into his character that makes Match Point such an interesting film.

        Johansson's Nola almost seems like a film noir femme fatale, but as the story progresses, she reveals more depth and a softer side.

        At first, she is unlikable, almost like an antagonist, but little by little you understand how she is the victim.

        Mortimer is the film's conscience. She loves Chris unwaveringly, believing in him as a decent and thoughtful person. Her love blinds her to his shortcomings.

        Allen mirror's the opening tennis ball sequence near the end. It's a key scene that reaffirms his talent as one of cinema's most sophisticated filmmakers.

        Match Point is a most intriguing story, almost Hitchcockian at times.
Allen's point seems to be that our lives are in our hands, and depending on how a person's moral compass bounces, we can even get away with murder.

        Bob Bloom is the film critic and DVD reviewer at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be reached by e-mail at bbloom@journalandcourier.com or at bob@bloomink.com. Bloom's reviews also can be found at the Journal and Courier Web site: www.jconline.com
Other reviews by Bloom can be found at the Rottentomatoes Web site: www.rottentomatoes.com.