Match (2014)

Directed by: Stephen Belber
Country: USA

Movie Review: Writer/director Stephen Belber brings to the cinema his own play, “Match”, providing a positive payoff for those who are able to minimize its imperfect moments. Patrick Stewart excels as Toby Powell, a Juilliard ballet teacher who gives the wrong impression of being satisfied with his life. When receiving the visit of a married couple, Lisa (Carla Gugino) and Mike (Matthew Lillard), who traveled from Seattle to interviewed him for the former’s dissertation, Toby shows to be gallant, extrovert and very much talkative. The one who seems not to appreciate this posture is Mike, a suspended cop who adopts a very inquisitive attitude that gets pretty close to rudeness, especially if we consider he was in the interviewee’s home. At certain point, Toby starts to feel uncomfortably weird when the name Gloria Rinaldi is mentioned and the questions date back to his sexual life in the 60’s. After Mike reveals to be Gloria’s son, the laid-back first moments soon slide to a heated argument. Suddenly, the possibility of Toby being Mike’s father was more realistic than ever. Not even some puffs on a joint could put a break in the tension, but Lisa stays behind to apologize when her husband leaves the apartment furious. Unexpectedly, revelations continue to burst at a fast pace, some quite interesting and some others with ‘too much information’. Even dramatically burnt to a crisp in several moments, particularly those involving Lisa and Toby, “Match” still hooks us up in part due to Stewart’s great performance, but especially for its restorative finale, which ended up pulling out some optimistic waves from the awkward encounter.