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THE CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION Send This Review to a Friend
Woody Allen is up to his comic tricks with a rollicking bit of foolishness that is purely entertaining in the best Allen mode. As the title "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" indicates, Allen's latest springs from his affection for such 1940s classics as "The Maltese Falcon." But this is no satirical rip-off. While the writer-director lavishes attention on getting the period look and combining it with an appropriate score, he is on his own rib-tickling trip, with a dash of contemporary comedy concerning women in the workplace.
Allen has cast himself as CW Briggs, a hot-shot, egotistical private eye for an insurance company. Briggs always cracks a case, and intuition is his strongest asset, with a little help from his oddball contacts. Allen is very funny, whether wisecracking or sending up movie private eyes with his cocksure attitude. But his world is suddenly being shaken. Company boss Chris Magruder (Dan Aykroyd) has hired a new executive, Helen Hunt as Betty Ann Fitzgerald, who is bent on reorganizing things, which invades CW's comfortable setup. They instantly loathe each other, and of course you instantly know that means eventual romance. As you might also suspect, she's the married boss's mistress.
The film has a kooky but ingeniously serviceable plot. Voltan, a hypnotist (David Ogden Stiers), while entertaining at a dinner, puts CW and Betty Ann under his spell, gets them to love each other while hypnotized and ties then to certain key words that long after the event can re-trigger their behavior on command. This sets the stage for the criminal and romantic fun, with CW as both the hunter and the hunted.
Allen has his usual good eye for assorted characters, all well cast, especially Charlize Theron as Laura, the sexy, spoiled rich girl who comes on to CW with all of her allure and is amazed when spurned. Elizabeth Berkley is amusing as the office secretary. Wallace Shawn has a droll role as one of the key insurance men, who has a flair for magic tricks. Irwin Corey, listed in the credits as Professor Irwin Corey after his long-time show business act, plays Charlie, one of CW's street weird contacts. The classy, always appropriate look of the film, thanks largely to production designer Santo Loquasto and director of photography Zhao Fei, is a big plus.
Apart from Allen's jaunty performance, the film's strongest asset is Helen Hunt, whether in Betty Ann's nasty or receptive mode. This versatile actress shows how deft she can be in a nutty comedy, and she and Allen work so very well together. "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" is as impeccably directed as Allen's other better comedies, and it provides fresh pleasure from an artist who once again demonstrates his originality and sophistication in making well-honed, laugh-rich films historically attuned to the art of cinema. A DreamWorks release.
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