MovieChat Forums > Match Point (2006) Discussion > Nola was pregnant...so it was easy for p...

Nola was pregnant...so it was easy for police to solve case


All i wanna say is Nola was pregnant..how dumb police can be...if they investigated properly they could have found killer..this movies plot is so unrealastic...Chris always said he loves nola but it was just sexual...y plot writer wanna show us how good he is and how he ended up...instead he should have showned how *beep* he is...

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It bothers the hell out of me how they were SOOOOOOOOO on to the right track and then suddenly they drop the case.

You want to play the game, you'd better know the rules, love.
-Harry Callahan

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They probably did know she was pregnant - it was probably in her diary, for starters. James Nesbitt's character had pieced it together when it was revealed that a drug dealer was found shot in the area with the old lady's ring on him, which gave far more strength to the drug robbery theory than suspicions about motives.

The plot doesn't show us "how good he is", it demonstrates the tennis analogy from the very first scene and the recurring theme of luck being more important than hard work. Isn't that obvious?

These bastards!

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I agree. It was a demonstration of how lucky you can be. The police already knew they had an affair, so the knowledge of the baby wouldn't change much. Of course it gives him an even stronger motive, but not enough to compete with the druggie.
I think the entire set-up was rather clever. Chris was clumsy, but got off due to sheer luck - confirming his point that luck matters a hell of a lot more than we think.

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Exactly that's the point. The scene where the ring hit the bar at the river-side, it could have fallen into the river and then the detective would have followed the case and at least Chris had been convicted. But it was sheer luck that the ring fell on the other side, a junkie picked it up, was killed and cops found the ring. So detective dropped the idea of pursuing the case. Lucky, isn't it?

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Exactly that's the point. The scene where the ring hit the bar at the river-side, it could have fallen into the river and then the detective would have followed the case and at least Chris had been convicted. But it was sheer luck that the ring fell on the other side, a junkie picked it up, was killed and cops found the ring. So detective dropped the idea of pursuing the case. Lucky, isn't it?


Agreed, that it was. 

"I'm the ultimate badass,you do NOT wanna f-ck wit me!"Hudson,Aliens😬

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Exactly. First, people have unfortunate fantasies about how the police work because they've seen far too many CSI episodes. The police -- everywhere -- are interested in wrapping cases up as quickly as possible. They do NOT spend ages sifting through DNA tests, etc. That is only in fantasy, on absurd, unrealistic television shows, or in the most high-profile cases in which the prosecution and defense hire expensive expert witnesses. The vast majority of cases, including homicides, do not get a Sherlock Holmes-level of scrutiny.

The whole point of this film is that his "escape" is due to luck, blind luck. And that is what happened -- the ring in possession of the drug dealer, when drug dealers had already committed crimes in the building and area, was the direct link the police needed. The police knew about the affair; that was not enough to prove that Chris that murdered Nola. There was no direct evidence like the ring.

"I love those redheads!" (Wooderson, Dazed and Confused, 1993)

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The police would discover Nola s pregnancy obviously. That would make Chris much more suspect, especially after they did DNA checks, which there is no way they would not do. Then the nonsensical coincidence about the ring wd never hv stopped the clever policeman.

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The police never mention that Nola was pregnant. Neither in their discussion with Chris, nor amongst themselves. That means that she did not write about it in her diary, and it did not show up in the autopsy.

Nola was not truthful about her pregnancy.

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Bingo... I thought it was pretty obvious she lied about it.

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I thought that too - in fact, mention of this was also made about Alex in Fatal Attraction. Was Alex lying too? Who can say since Match Point doesn't clarify it, though Fatal did.

Jerry at the Movies
http://jerrysaravia.blogspot.com/

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Even before the killing and investigation my wife declared her to be lying about the pregnancy.

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yes it was possibly true. she probably said it just to get attention

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As another post pointed out, the drug dealer's possession of the ring trumped the pregnancy, since "motive doesn't make a case."

I don't think Nola was lying about being pregnant. She spends the entire movie blowing auditions, so either she's not good at
acting (and thus not very good at pretending) or just unlucky; her character isn't written as a manipulator, only one who follows her passions and takes risks.

I think assumptions are made about Nola because she doesn't get the same screen time as Chloe, so judging her motives is trickier. At one point Chris suggests she's just trying to exact some revenge on the Hewitt family, to which she replies by asking if the pledges of love Chris has been making for months are real or not.

It's like she doesn't love him either, and the anger and frustration she displays isn't aroused by unreciprocated love but by the ease which with Chris maintains his "sham" life. I don't think Nola has nearly the guile credited to her.

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Now I'm gonna have to watch the movie again, since I can't remember enough to say for sure. I just remember thinking, at the time, that obviously Nola wasn't actually pregnant.

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I also thought that. It seemed she was getting more and more desperate to trap him into a long-term relationship using the alleged pregnancy. We have nothing but her word that she is with child.

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Just because Nola said she was pregnant we can't be sure she really was. She may have been saying she was to get him to leave his wife.

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Nola was never pregnant.

The first thing the police will do on a murder victim is to do an autopsy, and one of the many things they checked on female victim was whether she was pregnant or not. There is no chance they would miss that on autopsy. And besides, nothing about pregnancy seemed to be mentioned in the diary.

So obviously, Nola was never pregnant in the first place.

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I agree that Nola was never pregnant.

Did anyone else notice the crazy number of pills she was taking, every time Chris was arguing with her about leaving Chloe, she rifled through an alarming number of bottles, chose one, and took some pills out. I'm pretty safe in saying they weren't vitamins, who thinks of taking a prenatal supplement in the middle of arguing about the course of your life?

She said that she had an abortion when "she was young" and another when she was engaged to Tom. I didn't get the impression from Tom that he was the most loving and affectionate husband material, but I also didn't feel like he was likely to push someone to an abortion.

I think the two of them deserved each other and their lies.

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Noala SAID she was pregnant, doesn't mean it was true.

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Interesting. I never thought of her not really being pregnant but I did think it was a huge hole in the plot to not have the pregnancy mentioned in the diary nor the autopsy. And even if she really wasn't pregnant, given she kept the diary, she would've discussed having tTOLD him she was. It's a huge hole in the plot either way. But either way, Chris gets lucky by missing dumping the ring and they have their suspect. But, of course, if the bullets used in the dead drug dealer's murder don't match to the gun in the other crime plus Chris' motive... More holes.

This is always a good movie again similar to Crimes and Misdemeanors- luck trumps reprehensible immorality.

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the bullets dont need to match cause the gun was never found. that dead junky who found the ring and got murdered himself is the supposed killer.

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the bullets dont need to match cause the gun was never found.


Absolutely! That's not an issue at all.

@Missy rocks

And even if she really wasn't pregnant, given she kept the diary, she would've discussed having tTOLD him she was.


I really don't think we can categorically say that.

I'm really not sure whether she was pregnant or not, but what I found really interesting, was that Mrs Eastby's ghost says she was, in the dream sequence.

Who was having the dream? Was it Chris or the police officer? If it was the cop (who comes to work the next morning claiming he's solved the case) you'd have to think that the police were aware that she was pregnant. If it was Chris...well fate again dealt him a lucky hand.

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There were never any bullets, but shot, he used his father-in-law's shotgun to dispatch Nola and Nola's neighbour.
The police have no way to see if shot came out a particular shotgun. Bullets from handguns and rifles are traceable, shot is not.

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Why would she necessarily write that she'd told him? Girls keep diaries to express their feelings for future reference, not to give accurate, objective and detailed accounts of everyday life. Maybe she didn't want to admit to herself that her wrecking of Tom's marriage was based on a lie. "I've finally convinced Chris to leave his wife" would be enough for future reference.

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If she actually was pregnant, she would have mentioned her desperation in her diary and the police would not have been so quick to dismiss him as a murder suspect.

And yes, it probably would have turned up in an autopsy as well.

Her pushy attitude was enough to make you doubt that she was actually pregnant.

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It proves that Nola was making up the pregnancy to trap Chris into leaving his wife. Since Nola's pregnancy did not show up in the autopsy, it means she was not pregnant.

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Some people are so thick in this world you need to explain EVERYTHING to them in black and white so they understand..

The ring found by the drug dealer threw the police of.. one of the investigators worked it out and then suddenly the drug dealer was found with her ring that he had thrown.. it's a huge analogy about luck, did you not listen to the opening scene where he talks about luck and luck is a major theme through out the movie, he has several conversations about it. He was lucky the ring hits the banister and lucky the drug dealer picked the ring up.. He's LUCKY.

I hate it how people like you exist.

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If I could thumbs up your comment I would give it 100 thumbs up. Very well said.

Always look for the positive in every situation.

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