While Star Trek: The Next Generation and The X-Men franchise are both greatly enjoyable enterprises, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that Patrick Stewart is a world class performer. While those giant projects allow him to get a little lost in the shuffle, it takes a smaller, more intimate movie to remind us that this actor is really quite remarkable. Thankfully, Stewart has recently been obliging us with a few such projects, and the trailer for one of them – Match – has just been released.
Written and directed by Stephen Belber, Match is the filmmaker’s second time at the helm, following 2008’s Management, starring Steve Zahn and Jennifer Aniston. Match, however, seems to owe a lot to Belber’s first screenplay – 2001’s Tape – which he adapted from his own play.
Like Tape, Match focuses on a trio of characters in an intimate setting, slowly unpicking each other’s perceived realities. The film teams Patrick Stewart with Carla Gugino and Matthew Lillard, and sets them on a collision course that begins with Gugino’s student interviewing Stewart’s Juilliard professor for her dissertation on the history of dance in 1960s New York, and results in ulterior motives being revealed.
The official synopsis is as follows:
“When Tobi is interviewed by a graduate student, Lisa (Gugino) about his days as a performer, he is forced to confront painful decisions he thought he had left in the past. With the fate of Lisa’s emotionally shattered husband (Lillard) in the balance, the three characters struggle to find a truthful common ground, uncertain if their brief but intensely intimate connection will result in disaster and regret – or healing and liberation.”
The trailer indicates a film that builds tension effectively, gradually revealing the inner lives of three very troubled characters, and the ulterior motives they each keep buried deep beneath the surface. The intimate setting allows the three performers to really shine in their roles – in particular, Patrick Stewart.
Having screened as part of the Tribeca Film Festival earlier in the year, Match will be released on January 14th, 2015.
