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SCOOP Send This Review to a Friend
Woody Allen is fond of film and literary references. So here we are in his delightful, funny and charmingly acted new mystery-comedy “Scoop,” which after starting with the funeral service for a star British journalist, finds the newsman on a boat with newly dead sailing with the grim reaper in an allusion to traveling in limbo along the river Styx. It is a lovely, provocative beginning to a tale in which a journalism student attempts to break the story that death interrupted.
Allen, as writer-director-actor, is in fine form. Casting is one of the joys. Beautiful Scarlett Johansson, who seems able to handle just about any role, is thoroughly enjoyable as Sondra, the student, an American in London, and Allen casts himself as Splendini, the very funny American magician otherwise known as Sid Waterman, ingeniously worked into the daffy plot. When Sondra becomes a volunteer in his act, something metaphysical occurs, and we and the two of them are off and running.
Ian McShane plays the journalist who met his fate under suspicious circumstances. The best casting of all is that of charmer Hugh Jackman as British aristocrat Peter Lyman, who falls for Sondra, who falls for him. There’s one problem: Could he possibly be the serial killer of prostitutes? (Shades of Jack the Ripper.) Jackman is so appealing that some moviegoers will recoil at his even being under suspicion. But that’s all part of the fun.
Before Allen is through leading us on this journey filled with surprises, he also manages a reference to Dreiser’s “An American Tragedy.” But the amusing thing about Allen’s references is that he always gives them original twists to suit his comedy and plot requirements. Giving away any more of the plot of this film would be cruel.
Allen is frequently a victim of past successes. Since the recent “Match Point” was such a hit, there will be a tendency to measure “Scoop” against it. "Match Point" was more of a thriller. “Scoop” is mainly a comedic romp, and should be taken in that light. As such, it is a wonderfully refreshing entertainment marked by Allen’s vaunted skills with everything from the sprinkling of Allenesque wisecracks, deft use of locales (England again), sophisticated interweaving of music and impeccably creative casting. A Focus Features release.
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