Woody Allen has been a respected filmmaker for over thirty years but recently he’s been in something of a slump with many of his trademark New York neurotic comedies misfiring. More, it has been 16 years since he attempted anything close to resembling a drama (the 1989 comedy/drama masterpiece "Crimes & Misdemeanors"). Thankfully, his latest stab “Match Point” is easily his best film in quite sometime.

Jettisoning his usually beloved Manhattan, The Woodman jaunts across the Big Pond and sets this story in London (not his first European adventure mind you, he did go to Paris for "Everyone Says I Love You") with a plot focusing on a borderline callow tennis player, Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, giving Jude Law a run for the money as sexiest onscreen Brit) whose philosophy for life is to be lucky rather than good. This proves to be his one flaw when he obtains a job as an instructor for a supremely private resort club and befriends one of his charges, Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), who’s shared love of opera has him inviting the unassuming tennis pro to a performance in his family’s reserved box seat. Here he meets the rest of Tom's family: respected businessman Alec (the ubiquitous Brian Cox), tipsy mum Eleanor (Penelope Wilton) and engaging sister Chloe (the wonderfully sublime Emily Mortimer) who falls deeply head over heels in love with Chris almost immediately. This love is reciprocal, and before you know Chris is taken in by the wealthy clan as one of the family.

As things progress Chris finds this sudden shift in his life moving along nicely, spending weekends on the Hewetts sprawling estate and even accruing a position in one of Alec's many business ventures as an apprentice seller. It is at the estate he meets Tom's gorgeous American fiancée Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson, giving one of her better performances to date), a fledgling actress who beguiles Chris immediately, so intoxicated by her very presence that the two wind up in a countryside embrace which leads to a moment of unbridled passion. While Nola makes light of giving in to these primal desires as a lack of clarity, Chris cannot get enough of her. Nola explains this desire between them is temporary and that she is going to marry Tom and that is the end of the story.

Chris tries to do what's right and eventually marries the unsuspecting Chloe, absorbing himself in work until one day, while playing a set with Tom, he’s informed his friend has dumped Nola and is now in love with another unknown woman. Suddenly the fire for Nola is reignited in Chris' soul and he becomes infatuated in finding her, intent on seducing the woman once and for all.

Allen allows his talented class plenty of room to act up a storm but not to overact.  What makes this seemingly straight-laced melodrama rise above the norm, however, is the way the leads make their seemingly unsympathetic characters empathetic. Rhys-Meyers remains cool as a cucumber until the predictable complications arise ensuring his affair with Johansson will lead to an unlikely scenario bordering on the ridiculous. Yet their mystery theater affair maintains a balance of dread, keeping audiences wondering when it will all come to a head. Johansson mixes the smoky cadence of her Kathleen Turner-like vocals into a come-hither insouciance we’ve not seen from her before, having the tricky task of making Nola's crazed emoting come to fruition believably and she succeeds wonderfully.

Allen's screenplay is literate, clever and crafty, at once familiar sprinkled with a few of his trademark quips and his upper crust characters make the most of them with a dry, bright witticism. The storyline flows evenly throughout, although the choppy third act feels a tad rushed yet when the darkness hits the film echoes "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (of which it has much in common). This is Allen's most adult film in sometime and, not to besmirch his other work, perhaps his most challenging. Woody’s back and he’s in fine form, not unlike an aging tennis pro with a wicked backhand.