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Scoop

Written by Nobuhiro Hosoki

 

Last year, Woody Allen, in his critically well-received comeback film Match Point, brought back a great sense of his prime work in the 70's. It featured Scarlett Johansson, his fetching new muse who stars in Scoop, consecutively cast from the earlier film, also set in London. Scoop, like Match Point, is fixated on a murder theme, and this time Allen recycles a neurotic, high-pitched-voice screwball comedy that even resembles his old flick, Manhattan Murder Mystery. It makes you felt this scoop was only in his mind, and its meaning hasn't been revealed.

The lighthearted film centers around an American college student Sondra Pransky(Scarlett Johansson), who is vacationing in London. She is plucked from the audience at a magic show and stashed into a transformation compartment with help of Sid(Woody Allen), a hack magician aka the Great Splendini, but the real hoopla was getting a sizzling tip from the hereafter channeled as a bulldog-type deceased journalist(Joe Strombel), who intend to score with a big scoop from his grave by claiming the notorious Tarot Card Killer is none other than British aristocrat Peter Lyman(Hugh Jackman) whose father, Lord Lyman, is well connected in political society.

Fortunately, this time instead of Sondra becoming an unbalanced object of love from Allen, the relationship settles into one of "parental guidance." Jackman gives a subtle performance as a reserved and blue-blood charmer that fits his character well. Although Johansson shows versatility in her acting ability to give us some chuckles via her slapstick material with Allen, it's never enough to build the tension with Jackman or tightly cling plot. Re-teaming with cinematographer Remi Adefarasin , he gives the English setting a light tone, for the intension of horror sometimes occurs in broad daylight.

As for Allen, even as we admire his consistent work of making a picture every year for almost three decades, that doesn't mean we could be satisfied with his recycling one-liner jokes one after another. We are not here for a nostalgic soothing feeling; after all, who really feels like reading a week-old "scoop"?

Written and directed by Woody Allen
Director of photography: Remi Adefarasin
Edited by Alisa Lepselter
Production designer: Maria Djurkovic
Produced by Letty Aronson and Gareth Wiley
Released by Focus Features.
Running time: 96 minutes.

Cast: Woody Allen (Sid Waterman)
Hugh Jackman (Peter Lyman)
Scarlett Johansson (Sondra Pransky),
and Ian McShane (Joe Strombel).