Scoop reviewed by Sam Osborn
rating: 3 out of 4
Director: Woody Allen Screenplay: Woody Allen Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Hugh Jackman, Woody Allen, Ian McShane MPAA Classification: PG-13 (some sexual content)
Woody Allen films have a tendency to talk. It's a nervous tic they have, all of them; they talk and talk and talk and talk. Even last year's Match Point, what some hailed as the most provocative film of 2006, was brought to its boil by a maelstrom of Allen-speak, the most distinguishable dialogue this side of David Mamet. It's as though the dialogue works as the flailing, frantic arms of a drowning man struggling to stay afloat, because Allen's stories are rarely strong and rely mostly on recycled themes from earlier works from his filmography. Watch Anything Else and Annie Hall, films made more than twenty years apart, and you'll realize their gross similarities. But Mr. Allen's talking is also his lifejacket and performs as it should. Scoop isn't the strongest film in any area, nor has the lasting power or relevance of any Allen's earlier masterpieces. But it talks and wits it way out of the more sticky segments of its duration, and the drowning film, in the end, is saved.
Mr. Allen's indulgence with London continues here, with Scoop being the second of three announced films Allen will shoot in the English city. What was jarring about London from last year's Match Point has now healed over with Scoop because either Mr. Allen has grown comfortable with shooting outside of Manhattan, or perhaps his audience has grown comfortable with his version of London. It's quite a comfortable version to snuggle into, filled with upper crust high society, well-manicured lawns and mansions, and nary a hint of urban depression to be found. The film is flavored accordingly to its setting, something Match Point struggled with. But Mr. Allen answers the question of whether his films will stay permanently in London through a sneaky little snatch of dialogue, which is all too fitting for an Allen picture. He decidedly won't because "besides the language barrier," he jokes, "I could never get used to the driving."
Scoop's story dips fickly into the waters of mystery; although any Woody Allen mystery must be taken with a grain of very intellectual salt. It opens with a memorial service honoring the late journalist Joe Strombel (Ian McShane), whose friends remember him as the man who would do anything to break a big story first, even if it meant rising from the grave. Cut to Death's River, as a bunch of Londoners sit bored on the Grim Reaper's boat awaiting their fate. Mr. Strombel makes small talk with the other passengers and finds a lady who's been poisoned by the widely-loved and handsomely young politician Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman). She confides in Mr. Strombel that she was poisoned because she'd cracked the case of the Tarot Card serial killer and was about to reveal the identity to be Mr. Lyman. Convinced and eager to report the tale, Strombel leaps overboard and swims back to reality in the form of a ghost. He appears in the magician Splendini's (Woody Allen) dematerializing box just as Splendini is displaying the act of making one brave audience member, Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson), disappear. Sondra is a struggling young journalist looking for a scoop and finds one in the words of Joe Strombel's spectral form.
Johansson's character appears first as another victim to Allen's puppetry of leading gals. He typically controls his actresses as if they were his muse, manipulating them into roles not otherwise fit for their acting styles. Masking the gross natural beauty of Ms. Johansson behind the façade of a mousy, overeager goofball of a college-girl seems a shame at first, but Johansson gains control of her vehicle as the film presses on
Floundering and confused behind big, round Harry Potter glasses, Sondra returns to Splendini, actually called Sid Waterman, and explains the incident. Too ridden by nervous anxiety (a Woody Allen film staple), Sid initially declines her invitation to snoop around Mr. Lyman's life, but is easily convinced when Strombel appears in the box yet again. But as these things work, not far into the pair's undercover investigation Sondra falls for the gentle charm of Mr. Lyman, despite the nervous, stuttering insistence of Mr. Waterman.
So, you see, Scoop is no ordinary mystery and it's no ordinary comedy. Leave it to Woody to base a mystery on a dead reporter jumping overboard from Death's boat. It's not very strong in either respect, but Allen's incessant dialogue carries it above the film's little hiccup of a story.
-www.samseescinema.com
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