Hollywood Reviews and Movie Trivia

With "Match Point" (2005) being herald as the new direction for Woody Allen to include an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay, "Scoop", his latest, again featuring Scarlett Johansson, is a lighthearted murder/mystery and scores a B...

Since going London, leaving Manhattan behind, to shoot his films with "Match Point", Woody Allen seems to have reenergized his films. The finer points of an Allen film are still there. An engaging, witty script, capturing the everyday life of a city (London in this case), and, a milieu of interesting characters. "Scoop" has them all, including the traditional Allen fascination with death. An apparent factor is that Woody Allen is providing a wide range of work for Scarlett Johansson to stretch and grow as an actress...

The film opens with the 'ship of death' slowly moving in a haunting, eerie, dark scene. On board are passengers who are going on to the next life. A legendary top-notch journalist named Joe Strombel (Ian McShane from HBO's series "Deadwood") gets a hot tip from a fellow passenger on the boat ride. Taking a side trip before he reaches his appointment with death, he is determined to solve the mystery he was working from beyond the grave. At the exact moment, a magician named "Splendini"/Sid Waterman (Woody Allen) from Brooklyn is performing in London. A young American journalism student, Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson) who's in the audience with her girlfriend, is recruited to be placed inside the "De-Materializer", a box "Splendini" has on stage. When the door is closed as part of the act, Joe Strombel's spirit appears inside of the box with her and quickly he fills her in on the events of his big scoop and who he suspects is the Tarot Card Serial Killer, British aristocrat Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman)!

Backstage, Sondra tells Sid about the apparition in the box, and reluctantly Sid goes along. Together they race about the streets of London and surrounding countryside in pursuit of the clues from Strombel's tips on the "Tarot Card Killer." A "cat and mouse" game of pursuit ensues as they close in on Lyman. Sondra gains Lyman's confidence as she looks for clues and finds them in the oddest, most casual places, slowly closing in on Lyman.
The characters in "Scoop" are fun to watch. Allen plays his stereotypes to the hilt with some funny one-liners! One of my favorites: "I was born to the Jewish persuasion but later converted to Narcissism" is an idea of the wit! Scarlett Johansson is the clever but ditzy American blonde, who eventually falls for the charm of her prime suspect Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman). "Scoop," is a light-hearted murder mystery that offers fun roles for Woody Allen, Scarlett Johansson, Hugh Jackman and Ian McShane. "Scoop" flies by in a well-paced 96 minutes, and the locations in England has pleasing interiors, and beautiful green exteriors of gardens and parks, which is a pleasant change from the normally overdone and overused locations of Manhattan...

Grade: B