← Back to Reviews
in
Scoop (2006 - Woody Allen)
After the triumphant return to form last year that made Woody at seventy-years-old a "hot" writer/director again, his follow up is much less spectacular...though still enjoyable. While Match Point was purposefully a departure from Woody's signature voice and just about completely devoid of comedy, Scoop is very clearly identifiable as a Woody Allen movie and definitely a comedy. Ian McShane ("Deadwood", Sexy Beast) plays a famous newspaper reporter who has recently died. In the afterlife he meets a woman who believes she was murdered by her employer, a handsome son of a Lord with political ambitions (Hugh Jackman). She believes he killed her because she suspected he was the Tarot Card Serial Killer who has been terrorizing London streets murdering prostitutes. The prospect of breaking a story this big is too much for even a dead reporter to turn down, so he cheats death and rematerializes as a ghost hoping to tell what he knows to a living reporter. Who he stumbles on is a flighty American girl (Scarlett Johannson) who writes for her small college newspaper and a cheesy old American magician (Woody Allen). As a team they con their way into the upper crust society circles and start their investigation to see if this attractive, respected son of a Lord is actually a dangerous killer.
Scoop is really a mishmash of some previous Allen movies: Manhattan Murder Mystery, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion and Match Point. It's enjoyable enough, even though none of the twists in the mystery plot will suprise many people, and the jokes come fast enough that it doesn't matter too much how many of them fall flat (though many of them do). Woody at seventy is still doing his Woody thing as an on-screen participant, though I must say I was thankful that he has finally decided he can no longer be the romantic lead going after gals fifty years younger than him. But his nebbish, nervous, socially awkward persona is still amusing and can still deliver a terrific one-liner. Scarlett Johannson plays a much ditzier and more fun character here than her cold beauty in Match Point, and while I wouldn't say light screwball comedy is her strong suit she's fine in the role and does have a few good moments throughout, even if the rapid-fire dialogue she's handed is a bit much for her at times. Jackman is well cast as the suave charmer who may or may not be hiding something, and Ian McShane is good as the reporter with a supernatural nose for a story.
But while Scoop is clearly better than some of the other supposed comedies I've suffered through in recent weeks (My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Clerks II) and I'm sure better than those I didn't suffer through (Little Man, You Me & Dupree), I can't say it all comes together brilliantly, either. It's a diverting little bit of fluff with a few genuine laughs and smiles, but never switches into high gear to become a great movie. You can do worse, for sure, or you can stay home and rent Manhattan Murder Mystery and Match Point and Crimes & Misdemeanors and Annie Hall and do better. In the end this will fall somewhere on that second tier of Allen's work...though that's not such a bad place to find oneself.
GRADE: B-
Scoop (2006 - Woody Allen)
After the triumphant return to form last year that made Woody at seventy-years-old a "hot" writer/director again, his follow up is much less spectacular...though still enjoyable. While Match Point was purposefully a departure from Woody's signature voice and just about completely devoid of comedy, Scoop is very clearly identifiable as a Woody Allen movie and definitely a comedy. Ian McShane ("Deadwood", Sexy Beast) plays a famous newspaper reporter who has recently died. In the afterlife he meets a woman who believes she was murdered by her employer, a handsome son of a Lord with political ambitions (Hugh Jackman). She believes he killed her because she suspected he was the Tarot Card Serial Killer who has been terrorizing London streets murdering prostitutes. The prospect of breaking a story this big is too much for even a dead reporter to turn down, so he cheats death and rematerializes as a ghost hoping to tell what he knows to a living reporter. Who he stumbles on is a flighty American girl (Scarlett Johannson) who writes for her small college newspaper and a cheesy old American magician (Woody Allen). As a team they con their way into the upper crust society circles and start their investigation to see if this attractive, respected son of a Lord is actually a dangerous killer.
Scoop is really a mishmash of some previous Allen movies: Manhattan Murder Mystery, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion and Match Point. It's enjoyable enough, even though none of the twists in the mystery plot will suprise many people, and the jokes come fast enough that it doesn't matter too much how many of them fall flat (though many of them do). Woody at seventy is still doing his Woody thing as an on-screen participant, though I must say I was thankful that he has finally decided he can no longer be the romantic lead going after gals fifty years younger than him. But his nebbish, nervous, socially awkward persona is still amusing and can still deliver a terrific one-liner. Scarlett Johannson plays a much ditzier and more fun character here than her cold beauty in Match Point, and while I wouldn't say light screwball comedy is her strong suit she's fine in the role and does have a few good moments throughout, even if the rapid-fire dialogue she's handed is a bit much for her at times. Jackman is well cast as the suave charmer who may or may not be hiding something, and Ian McShane is good as the reporter with a supernatural nose for a story.
But while Scoop is clearly better than some of the other supposed comedies I've suffered through in recent weeks (My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Clerks II) and I'm sure better than those I didn't suffer through (Little Man, You Me & Dupree), I can't say it all comes together brilliantly, either. It's a diverting little bit of fluff with a few genuine laughs and smiles, but never switches into high gear to become a great movie. You can do worse, for sure, or you can stay home and rent Manhattan Murder Mystery and Match Point and Crimes & Misdemeanors and Annie Hall and do better. In the end this will fall somewhere on that second tier of Allen's work...though that's not such a bad place to find oneself.
GRADE: B-