Luck, Karma and Happiness

In the first scene of Woody Allen´s latest movie "Match Point" you see a tennis ball on his way over the net, hanging on the net´s edge - on which side of the court will it fall down? The question of luck or unluck can decide a whole match as every tennis player knows. And so it is in every aspect of life. Is it true that sheer luck is more important than talent for success?

Chris, Allen´s hero in this movie, is obviously lucky, starting as a middle-class tennis-trainer he becomes the beloved son-in-law of a high-society family, a business-man in daddy-in-law´s company, owning a penthouse at the Themse with a view on Big Ben, involved in all of the high-society-activities and cultural events. But he is not happy. The new society he got into is a boring and empty bunch of people. Happiness and fulfillment comes only in his sexual relationship with the unsuccessful actress Nola (Scarlett Johansson).
But this contradiction in his life can not last, and when the point of decision comes, Chris is unable to fight for happiness against his new standard. Even with commiting a murder he is lucky. And even without the psychological grief of Dostojewski´s hero Raskolnikov, Chris is not getting happy.

Is happiness the most important thing in life? Then, what is happiness? What is more important: to feel absolute happy in a single moment or to be happy through the continuation of your whole life? Has it to do with doing the right thing, according to your values and ideals or is it an ecstatic experience of joy and love? Is happiness something that we achieve as a fruit of our deeds?

In the end of the movie "Family - Ties of Blood" we see Amitabh Bachchan as the broken gangster-boss, covered over and over with the blood of the people he killed, getting slightly insane - and then a sentence:
"Your karma is your destiny."

You reap what you have sown. It is your karma that decides your future. Also if you do not believe in reincarnation, you can understand "Karma" as "Action". And obviousley your acts in the past have influenced your present situation, and so your present deeds will influence your future.

Getting back to Allen´s movie, we see a hero who is seemingly not getting punished for his deeds, who is not losing the high standard of living he gained by luck. But he gets caught in a golden cage.
And the question remains: what is happiness? and what is a "good life"?