By Anne Brodie Jul 27, 2006, 9:42 GMT
Woody Allen’s in familiar story territory here – he and a loony female sidekick chase after clues in a murder mystery, break into suspect’s homes, just as their target arrives on the scene, making for intensely excruciating but hilarious moments.
Evidently they are in mortal danger, but getting a tremendous kick out of it. There are plenty of opportunities to kvetch.
He and Diane Keaton did it in ‘Manhattan Murder Mystery’. This time it’s Johansson, who at the tender age of 22, easily keeps pace with the frantic filmmaker in this stylish whodunit.
Theirs is a strictly platonic relationship based on mutual amusement and energy levels. Apparently, the two actors bonded shooting ‘Match Point’ and Johansson stayed on in England to shoot ‘Scoop’ for her new best friend.
Scoop opens at the London funeral of a famed print journalist Joe Strombel (Ian McShane) a legend in his circle for regularly taking risks and breaking big stories.
Scene shifts to the river Styx, where Strombel and a motley crowd of souls are making their journey to Hades aboard Charon’s boat.
A young female passenger tells Strombel that she was poisoned because she knew something dicey about a certain Lord’s son.
He can’t leave a good story alone, even in death, so Strombel dives into Styx and makes his way back to Earth. It’s a surreal and hilarious that could only have come from the fevered brain of the Wood-man.Strombel contacts Sondra (Johansson), an American college journalism student visiting London. He appears to her as a ghost, tells her what he’s learned, instructing her to run with it. She’ll have the biggest scoop of her life.
Their otherworldly meeting takes place while she’s onstage in a magic box, an audience stooge for American magician Splendini, real name Waterman (Allen).
She’s talking to ghosts in the box and he’s outside, pretending to shake up her molecules to make her disappear. The audience eats it up, especially when she comes out, looking completely gob smacked.
She later blurts out her vision to Waterman. After his initial reluctance to get involved, they pair up, because, as meddlers, they love a murder mystery.
Waterman gets involved because he feels a certain paternal protectiveness towards Sondra. Before he knows it, he’s up to his bespectacled eyeballs.
Because if the ghost is right, Lord Lymon’s son Peter (Jackman) is the Tarot serial killer who’s been bumping off short-haired brunettes across London.
The first step – getting to know Peter, which is pretty easy for Sondra, who pretends to drown in a pool where he’s swimming. He is instantly smitten and invites her to a swanky party.
Soon, Sondra and Waterman, posing as father and daughter (the Spences) are rubbing elbows with the British aristocracy, and getting a closer look at Peter.
Allen has filled the script with his signature downtrodden, self-pitying, self-absorbed and consistently great jokes. One of the best is ‘People tell me I see the glass half empty. I see it half full ...of poison!’ and a million others, running fast and furious throughout this merry adventure.
Johansson seems to be channeling Woody in a smaller, prettier way. Her rapid ripostes are equal to his. She’s the brains of the outfit. They are well matched with a unique chemistry unusual onscreen between a 22 year old and a 71 year old. They are delightful together and the story is fun, okay so it’s not deep, but it’s a worthy and entertaining summer pass time.
I would rather watch one of Woody Allen’s most middling projects than many others’ best comedies. There is always sophistication, wit and elegance, good laughs and memorable lines you wish you’d said.
And let’s not forget the joy in watching Allen, who with his neuroses and complaints, as everyman, with the added tang of wit.
Opens wide USA July 28th. MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some sexual content
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