Match (2014)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Tour de force performance from Patrick Stewart. Unfortunately his role is not really captivating. The young man is more interesting. Ultimately as a film it falls short. Maybe it worked on stage. In some aspects I found Toby's character repulsive.

Patrick Stewart flies in this - for him - very quirky role, a somewhat over-the- top, deliberately isolated, and often rather silly and kinetic aging ballet teacher at Julliard. Playing Tobias (Tobi) Powell, he's lived around the world and pretty much seen it all. He's been on a million adventures, slept with a million people, lived the prototypical and seemingly enviable life of a globe-trotting artiste - a ballet dancer who many years before blew out a muscle that kept him off the stage permanently. Now he teaches ballet at the world-renowned school of music, theater, and dance in New York City, Julliard. Settled into a quiet, out-of-the- way if funky ethnic neighborhood in Manhattan, Tobi's on the comfortable down slope of a long career in the arts.Inserted into his comfortable world are two people who want to learn about his life and the history of ballet - at least, that's what Tobi is lead to believe initially. That's of course just the beginning of the story. Though the many spoilers give away the plot, I won't here. Better to discover it for yourself. Carla Gugino and Matthew Lillard as the seemingly mismatched married couple Lisa and Mike Davis, are contrasting sides of the same coin. Mike is brutish, somewhat taciturn, forceful. Lisa is sweet, lovely, kind, thoughtful. They each in their own way lend powerfully to the story. Lillard is surprising in his role - he often plays pretty silly, crazy, and ridiculous characters himself, but here he is the straight man. In this particular role, it's ideal. He does well. Gugino is very good as the wife, crushed and withered by difficult circumstances and history between she and Mike. She comes across gently, carefully exposing her many wounds to Tobi who frequently meets her halfway in her moment of crisis. But, ultimately, this is a story of redemption. In this respect all characters come back together in funny, heart-wrenching, and unexpected ways. And what can be said of Patrick Stewart as Tobi? Wow. Just wow. He is really so very, very good. He's incredibly silly at times - saying crazy and really inappropriate things, but almost always hilariously. It's often due to nervousness but he's really kind of an ADD case, blurting out at times brilliantly absurd comments about love, lust, sex, and all kinds of people. He's really, really funny. He's also incredibly poignant. He has a huge heart, is loving and sweet, ridiculous and silly, over-the-top and flamboyant. He encapsulates all that you expect an artist to be. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't be enormously entertained by Stewart's performance in this film. "Match" is an insightful film about the twists and turns hidden in the life we think we've lead, about the decisions we've made, about maybe what we've left behind or left undone. Well worth a watch.

Tobi (Patrick Stewart) is a dance professor at Julliard. Today he's very nervous, however, as he's expecting guests. Who they are, you don't know but he wants everything to be just right and he fusses over the details. Once the couple arrive, you learn that the woman is supposedly working on a dissertation about dance and the husband is just along for the ride. This portion at Tobi's favorite restaurant is VERY hard to take. Tobi is so superficial and flamboyant that he comes off as fake and annoying. I really was tempted to turn off the film...it was THAT bad.Soon the scene changes to Tobi's apartment. While the lady (Carla Gugino) asks Tobi a lot of questions about dance, her husband (Matthew Lillard) begins asking questions--which is strange because he's just supposed to be along for the ride. What's stranger is that his questions are very invasive and he begins asking Tobi about his sex life. What is this all about....as it soon becomes obvious that there is no dissertation and the couple have ulterior motives. What? See the film.I hated the first 20 minutes or so of the film and thought the writing and Stewart were just awful. But I stuck with it...and I am glad I did because through the course of the film, the bravado, the fakeness and the veneer begin to wear away and the movie becomes an interesting character study. In fact, it becomes a wonderful study of all three--and all three are marvelous. It also becomes quieter...more contemplative...and very emotionally charged--so much so that you might just want to have a few Kleenex handy. Rarely has a movie surprised me like this one did...and I am certainly glad I saw it. If you, too, would like to see it, the film is out this week on Netflix.By the way, this is not a film for kids. There is a lot of talk about sexuality and it would probably bore younger viewers as well. But for someone who wants to see marvelous acting you cannot do much better than this.

"Absolutely I remember Gloria Renaldi" Tobi (Stewart) is a acclaimed dance instructor in New York City at Juilliard. He agrees to be interviewed at his apartment regarding the history of dance. When the two interviewers, Lisa (Gugino) and Mike (Lillard) show up things quickly turn tense when Mike mentions a name from Tobi's past. Secrets are revealed and lives are changed. This is a good movie, but it is not for everyone. First off, this is based off a Broadway play and the movie plays as one. For the most part there is one location and only 3 actors. This is just talking. The acting is amazing though and the movie is worth watching for that. Stewart seems like the perfect choice for this role and Gugino really plays well off of him. All that said this is again a movie for a select few. I liked it OK but wouldn't watch it again. Overall, if you like Broadway one act plays then I would check this out, if you aren't a fan of that type of entertainment then I would skip this one. I give it a B-.