In Woody Allen's "Match Point," Jonathan Rhys-Meyers plays Chris Wilton, a retired tennis player who has given up the pro circuit for the easier game of teaching the rich and untalented. When one of his students -- easygoing Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode) -- invites him to the opera, a new world opens before him. A prince of high society, Tom introduces Chris to his wealthy parents, Alec (Brian Cox) and Eleanor (Penelope Wilton), who take a strong liking to him, and to his sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer), who is clearly smitten with the affable newcomer. But no sooner has Chris started dating Chloe when he meets Nola (Scarlett Johansson), Tom's sultry fiancee. An aspiring actress from Colorado, she's an outsider, too. Like Chris, she's all too aware of their precarious existential positions: Beholden to the Hewetts, they are powerless to do anything but play ball. So their passionate attraction to each other presents quite a problem.

If ever there was a case to be made for an artist finding inspiration abroad, Allen's first foray out of New York makes a powerful argument. A sort of romance noir -- spruced up in pressed white linens -- this British-made film is elegant, uncompromising and oh-so- veddy nasty. Its characters march to the drumbeat of Greek tragedy, film noir and opera, and you can almost hear the murderous musings of Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov, who puts himself beyond morality and the law. "Match Point" may not herald a Woody renaissance, but it's a terrific surprise for those who have come to greet his annual output with knowing groans.

-- Desson Thomson