Canaan Chapman

Special Topics in Film Studies – Woody Allen

Dr. Gaylord Brewer

7 December 2009

Crimes and Punishment and Luck

“I’d rather be lucky than good,” describes a haunting mindset believed by Chris Wilton, a character in Woody Allen’s film Match Point. A brilliant and accomplished American writer and director, Allen has created infamous works that generations to come will salivate over and debate as to exactly what he was trying to accomplish. One such example is the aforementioned Match Point in which Chris Wilton, a former tennis pro, befriends the young and privileged Tom Hewitt at an exclusive tennis club. Chris and Tom's sister fall in love, only to be complicated by Chris having a secret affair with Tom's fiancée, Nola Rice, whom Tom's parents disprove of. After a substantial period of time, Chris seems to be lost as to what the happy way out is. Lost in his misery, in desperation, he ends up shooting Nola and her innocent neighbor one evening. Chloe notices a change in his mood and demeanor, but the thoughts are dismissed quickly by hearing news of Nola's death in the newspaper the next day. The police call Chris in to question, revealing that she kept a diary and they know of the affair. Chris begs the police respect discretion and consider familial reputation, and that he could not have possibly been the killer. The police rule the double-homicide as drug-related and catch what police thought was the real criminal days later. This film could be seen as a modern-day retelling (albeit with distinctly separate outcomes) of Dostoyevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. In that book, a similar story of murder takes place: an unstable man, Raskolnikov, devises a murder to gain freedom from what is holding him down in life. That murder goes awry when Raskolnikov ends up killing another innocent person who happens upon his crime. Unlike in Crime and Punishment, though, Chris Wilton, the murderer, walks away scott-free.

Although not a one hundred percent faithful retelling of Dostoyevsky's novel, there are some parallels and references in Allen's movie itself. Normally, when we think of that old adage, we think of "good" in terms of skillful, but in Chris's opening line in the film deals in the context of the sport he plays with the nature of his belief system: "I'd rather be lucky than good," insinuating that a good life, based on morality and virtue, is not necessarily all that important to being successful in life. In an opening scene, Chris Wilton is seen reading a paperback copy of the novel, putting it down and then picking up a reader's companion. The entire film then reminds us of the dual nature of the plot with which Allen presents, with an interesting addition: luck.

In fact, if one was to note every aspect of Chris's life, thinking about them in terms of luck being the deciding element, not skill or virtue, some interesting findings can be assessed. Starting out with his tennis career, Chris's chance meeting with another world tennis player and old friend, Henry, states that "a few bounces just the other way, you could've beat some of those top seeds." Entertaining the notion of luck contriving the plot, Chris becoming friends with Tom at the tennis club could be seen as a chance encounter. Was it chance that Chris Wilton was into opera and that Tom’s father happened to be an active patron in a local theater? Chloe Hewitt, Tom’s lovely and sweet sister falls for Chris, and, unlike Tom’s fiancée, is someone the family admires and grows to like. Alec Hewitt, Tom and Chloe’s father said, “I find him very likable; he fought his way up with the only means necessary to him.” Alec, from the beginning of Chris and his daughter’s relationship was always very supportive, offering monetary help and support on multiple occasions, even offering him a lucrative executive position at his company. As luck would have it, Chris confessed to Chloe soon after meeting that his tennis training is a temporary position, and that that he would “cut my throat if I thought I'd have to do it forever."

Chris Wilton cannot be discussed without mentioning his steamy affair with the starving American actress Nola Rice. After investing much time and attention into the relationship, Nola became pregnant with his child. Chris slipped into the Hewitt cellar, stole a shotgun, and committed the perfect crime by killing Nola, and as a safety net, her neighbor, an innocent old woman. An interesting plot twist ensues. To make the crime look like a standard robbery-gone-wrong, he also burgled her jewelry and prescription medication. The next day, Chris walked to the River Thames and discarded the various pearl necklaces, pill bottles, earrings, bracelets, and other assorted items. The last item he threw was the old woman’s wedding band. Matching the opening scene voiceovered by Chris, the ring hit the railing on the river’s edge and bounced straight up, just like the tennis ball. In her book, Woody, Julian Fox writes that in “American cinema, the unpunished crime is a relatively recent narrative concept” (205). Woody Allen is clearly employing the same strain of storytelling that he did in earlier films such as Crimes and Misdemeanors, but the question is: would the audience remember this as something Allen does? To echo Chris’s own words: “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.” Viewers are led to believe that as the ring fell backwards and landed on the ledge that it was all over for him, that he would be found out and arrested for his crime.

The beauty of the scene is that viewers have no idea of the direction of this story! The fact of the matter is this though: Chris Wilton is the luckiest character in the entire film. When all seems lost audiences think that Chris’s behavior will give him away to Chloe, it simply does not happen. Another criminal was found dead at the scene of a similar crime with the old woman’s ring in his pocket! Nola’s true murderer will never be caught, and Chris walks a free man.

Nola on the other hand, in stark contrast to Chris, is a foil against his godly luck. From her introduction, she is portrayed as inferior to Chris. Compare a kid’s game to a professional sport: she is hustling party guests in games of table tennis. If one was to look at her life as Chris’ was just examined, we see revealing facts. Chris and Nola came from similar backgrounds of commonality. She has not quite yet found her niche in society while Chris is a self-made man who is not struggling to make a living. Nola may or may not have been a good actress, but that point is moot against the luck that is stacked against her. She could not land a role. She never convinced Tom to tie the knot. She, after much pleading and annoyance, could not get Chris to leave Chloe, and in the end of the narrative, was murdered.

Nothing in the film weighs more heavily as a moral compass than luck. The few times religion is brought up, the characters seem to make a joke about it. For example, over dinner, Tom says to the group, “Despair is the path of least resistance,” to which Chris corrects him, “I believe that faith is the path of least resistance.” Chloe guffaws and chides, “Oh God! Let’s change the subject.” A few lines before that, Chris told a story about how his father lost his legs and then found Jesus Christ. Tom then says, "I don't think it's a fair trade." Chris ultimately lives for himself, allowing him to be caught up in the moment. Though his attraction to her is clear since their first meeting, his affair with Nola seemed to be on a whim, following her into the rain. Asking her, “Do you feel guilty?” implies that Chris knew what he was doing. Did he judge his actions on a scale of right or wrong? To quote Nola later in the movie, “You have to learn to push the guilt under the rug and move on, otherwise it overwhelms you,” which seems to be his way of living, as it has been explored.

The ending of the movie brings up even more questions and theories on the concept of luck versus morality in the narrative. A policeman was overheard at the murder scene saying, “Some people don’t have any luck,” which is completely true. So there are those on the opposite side who have all the luck. Chris Wilton lives his life under the mindset that he would have luck over goodness and morality any day, which raises an interesting question over morality versus the law. If one is lucky enough, the law has no hold on that person. The detective questioning Chris had the murder plot figured out, but in the end the wrong person was blamed. In a world where morality is substituted for chance, there is no justice. There is no hope. Luck rules the day.

Unlike his nineteenth century Russian counterpart Raskolnikov, Chris’s lucky streak did not end. Crimes were committed, and punishment not received. When luck enters the picture, morality is replaced with random chance. He said this in the beginning: “People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. It's scary to think so much is out of one's control.” If someone were to flip a quarter one hundred times, there is a diminutive chance that all one hundred flips will be heads. In Chris Wilton’s life, every coin came up in his favor. Even though there is no justice, such a world is not without consequences. The last shot of the movie is of Chris’s twisted, tired, teary face. John Baxter said in Woody Allen, a Biography, “there is no peace for him this side of the grace. He’s not built for happiness, or if he ever was, the tendency has long since been erased.” But, as Tom exclaims, apropos, “I don’t care if he’s [happy], I care if he’s lucky.”

Works Cited

Baxter, John. Woody Allen A Biography. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1999.

Fox, Julian. Woody: Movies from Manhattan. Woodstock: The Overlook Press, 1996.

Match Point. Dir. Woody Allen. Perf. Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson. BBC Films, 2005. DVD.