Monday, July 31, 2006

Movie Review: Scoop

By Dan Gattuso

Scoop

The late U.K. journalist Joe Strombel is being mourned by his colleagues--even as, stuck in limbo, Joe remains committed to pursuing a hot tip on the identity of "the Tarot Card Killer" at large in London. But, how can his legwork get done now? Via the very much alive Sondra Pransky. Sondra is an American journalism student visiting friends in London. During a stage performance by another American, magician Sid Waterman, Sondra is shocked to find herself able to see and hear Joe. From beyond, he gives her the scoop of a lifetime and urges her to pursue it. Sondra immediately starts chasing the big story, enlisting the aid of a reluctant Sid. That chase leads right to handsome British aristocrat Peter Lyman. Soon, Sondra finds that the romance of her life may well be the dangerous scoop she's looking for.

Source: Cinema Source

• Showtimes and more on Scoop

Taking Manhattan Murder Mystery across the pond, sort of, Scoop is Woody Allen's second film in succession to substitute London for his beloved New York and the English countryside for life in the Hamptons, mostly because he can only get financing from the BBC these days. (Last year's Match Point, also starring Scarlett Johansson, is the other.) It's been a smooth transition: London is every bit as much of a character as New York is in his other films.

Scoop is a familiar Allen construct with a few variations: An American journalism student (Johansson) at a magic show gets a tip from the ghost of a dead journalist (Deadwood's Ian McShane) that a famous aristocrat (Hugh Jackman) may be London's notorious tarot card serial killer. She and the bumbling magician, The Great Splendini (Allen), follow up on the celebrated reporter's last scoop, and naturally she falls for her enchanting murder suspect.

The plot is full of the same kind of holes contained in the Greek and Shakespearean plays Allen references so frequently; clues fall in characters' laps and things wrap up a little too conveniently. None of that matters much because the marriage of those classical styles with 1930s screwball comedy is really the point. It's a formula Allen has mastered over the years, even if it tends to go stale more often than not lately.

Scoop feels much fresher than his blasé comedies of the last five years, and the actors collected for this picture probably deserve as much credit as anything. Jackman falls right into the charming British playboy role like a reincarnation of Cary Grant — alluring, dapper and sophisticated. His chemistry with Johansson is natural and convincing. So too is the non-romantic (thank goodness) chemistry and repartee between Johansson and Allen, who poses as her father during their investigation of Jackman.

By the way, I'm now officially completely in the bag for Scarlett Johansson. She's shown a knack for dark, ironic comedy in films like Ghost World and Lost In Translation, but here she kills in her first stab at straight-up farce — a funny, beautiful, brave, somewhat nerdy, irresistible ingénue. It's like watching Diane Keaton in the body Marilyn Monroe. Not yet 22 years old, the future looks very bright for Ms. Johansson and those of us who get to watch her work for the next 30 years.

Scoop's verbosity at times obscures some of the gags and causes the film to creep in a few places. Allen's stammering delivery is even more prominent than usual, as though he needs more time in his old age to think up the joke he's already written. It may be far from his most brilliant movies, but Scoop is a charming little screwball comedy with a great cast and more than enough laughs to pass the time in these languid summer days.

This story was submitted by a member of the TexasGigs community.

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