disgusting, overrated, pointless

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Not an action flick, this is a character and dialogue driven film containing lots of twists and surprises, and I found it quite engrossing as it offers something different. Instinctively, I felt it might have been a play, and after reading up on it, I saw that is was indeed, with playwright Stephen Belber ably adapting it to the screen and directing as well. Just to note, surprisingly, it contains very raw language and some sexual references in its content.It's pretty much a 3 person movie, with fine performances from Patrick Stewart, Carla Gugino, and Matthew Lillard. Stewart portrays Tobi Powell, a retired world-class dancer and choreographer, who now teaches dance at Juilliard, in New York City. He's a complex bi-sexual man, who can be caustic, bombastic, and "swear like a sailor", yet be into knitting and cooking as well.The ever vivacious Gugino plays Lisa Davis, who has traveled from Seattle with her policeman husband Mike (Lillard) to meet Tobi, and ostensibly interview him for her dissertation on the history of classical choreography. However, after a casual get-together at a local Greek restaurant, Tobi invites the couple to his apartment to continue the interview.It's not long before Tobi senses there's a lot more at play here than a simple interview, and things begin to get rather intense and even sinister. Henceforth, they'll be a number of twists and turns that kept me guessing right up to the final scenes.All in all, this movie got my attention and kept me engaged from start to finish with its surprises and intrigue, along with the excellent performances from all three leads here.

I'm not a movie reviewer. I probably couldn't tell the difference between a great performance and a bad one. I'm most certainly a bad judge of film, to give an example I love the movie Battleship. But I can't recall a movie that's ever left me with such a feeling after that I need the closure that comes from writing this. If that is any indication of how good this movie is so be it.The story is as simple as a couple (Carla Gugino and Matthew Lillard) interviewing a ballet teacher (Patrick Stewart) with questions about his career. But, can we really ever talk about our lives without bringing up our life and the consequences it has for everyone? Especially so if the questions are driven by motive. In this context the movie starts to feel like the play it is from, so be prepared for intelligent dialog, scenes over analyzed, emotions too dark and complex. There are no explosions as in most American movies, except the ones of our characters.If you're a fan of film festival movies, if you enjoy Broadway, if you prefer music from groups that are not mass market popular then this movie is for you. The characters are so real I felt like an intruder in their lives dealing with subjects so personal I had to avert my eyes to afford them a sense of privacy. All three actors, Stewart, Gugino, Lillard gave the best performances of their careers, which is bit of a surprise from Gugino and Lillard who I've enjoyed in the past but I regard as kind of one-note actors. You'd never know they had it in them which makes it a pleasure to watch.Hurt people hurt people, and there is a lot of hurt and regret in this film. I left the theater wanting to give each of the characters the hug they sorely needed and deserved. Most emotionally drawn films cause you to cry when viewing them. This one made me cry long after, after I was able to piece together the lasting consequences of these strangers' encounter.

"Not surprisingly, the disclosure of information about unsuspected paternity comes with potentially devastating effects." David L. Katz Match is essentially a three hander with Patrick Stewart as the epicenter of a talky drama that revels in the secrets and lies we all work with. Full disclosure: Stagey films are my nectar, where the spoken word, and never enough of it, is the drama. Although director Steven Belber adapts his play to this film, it receives criticism for being static—all the better, I say, to concentrate on what gives the most life to human interaction: words. Tobi (Patrick Stewart), an aging professor of dance at Julliard, agrees to an interview by a troubled married couple. Lisa and Mike (Carla Gugino and Matthew Lillard), ostensibly for her dissertation on dance history. As in most good drama, all is not as it seems. The ultimate goal is to flesh out Tobi's alleged paternity of Mike sometime in the '60's. Whether or not Tobi is the father (not certain despite cop Mike's devotion to certainty)is less important than the dissection of Tobi's solipsism, the release of Lisa's inhibitions, and Mike's coming to terms with the terms of Tobi's paternity and Lisa's happiness with their marriage. Although Match lacks the robust universality of Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? it stands up well at getting behind the characters' facades and into their hearts. Match is a literate take on the matches we make in life, such as Lisa's apparent mismatch with Mike or Tobi's unwillingness to match himself with his alleged son from his birth. Along the way is a match with a profession, benign with Tobi, not so with Mike, and not so with Lisa on more than one level. As the characters admit their mistakes, writer Belber offers the possibility that life choices may frequently be non-negotiable and for the best. Who knows? We're all just doing our best given life's limitations. This is one heck of a drama, stage or film.

Wow. I cannot believe a man of Patrick Stewart's talent and experience could present a character as boring, ugly, and bizarrely unbelievable at this stage of his career. Even if his director begged him to perform this poorly I cannot believe he would do so. I am sorry. But, do not waste even five minutes on this movie.Matthew Lilliard, as the potential son, created a character that was so unreal that no one should be asked to suspend disbelief. His character is not a cop. There is a sense of un-realness to this performance. There is no believable reason for his character to be such a bore. This could be a career ending performance. I honestly cannot believe anyone put money forward to produce this, one of the worst movies I have seen in years.