Scoop

Year: 2006
Genre: Comedy
Directed: Woody Allen
Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Woody Allen, Hugh Jackman, Ian McShane, Julian Glover, Romola Garai, Fenella Woolgar, Matt Day, Tina Rath, Charles Dance
Production: BBC Films

Woody Allen doesn't make bad films. At his best he makes films that are absolute treasures of the filmmaking craft, made all the more memorable by the writer/director's sonorous one-liners and punchy zingers. He can also make films that are strikingly ordinary; held together only by a few frivolous if easily relatable quibbles and the charm of its cast. Scoop is not one of Woody Allen's finer films. In-fact despite hosting the effervescent charm of Scarlett Johansson as its lead, it's barely even passable.

The story begins with former journalist Joe Strombel (McShane) standing along the shores of the river Styx with death himself. He strikes up a conversation with Jane (Woolgar) a recently deceased secretary who swears she had her coffee poisoned by her boss. She's convinced her employer Peter Lyman (Jackman) is the "Tarot Card Killer," who has been terrorizing the citizens of London for months. Enter journalism student Sondra Pransky (Johansson), a good girl from Brooklyn who takes in a magic show hosted by bargain-bin magician Sid Waterman (Allen). While volunteering for one of Sid's chintzier tricks, she accidentally summons the spirit of Joe whom may have the biggest tip she's ever received.

Woody's reaction to the box office returns of Irrational Man (2015)

By the sounds of it, Scoop has all the familiar trappings of your average Woody Allen gig; an ensemble falling in and out of love, working-class insecurities played against a backdrop of high-class social circles, the inevitable specter of death played for laughs. Adding in the convoluted plot of murder and betrayal and a fine performance by Hugh Jackman, Scoop had a story to rival Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). Unfortunately due to two big glaring errors, Scoop remains relegated to the Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) pile.

Hi! I'm Sondra and I'm surprisingly affable.

The first error was casting the rapturous Scarlett Johansson as the endearingly classless Sondra Pransky. The very name conjures a Midwestern milk-maiden thus the character calls for being charming in her own pedestrian flightiness; She talks of being Katharine Hepburn sure, but she's ultimately the type of girl who one could easily talk to and share your secrets. Far be it for me to limit the range of Ms. Johansson. She has played the femme fatale and the permissive interloper to great aplomb in Match Point (2005) Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) respectively, yet ordinary she certainly is not. Not even a masters course in at the Sorbonne and Monster (2003)-style makeup could have made her blend to the degree Allen needed her to.

At least he's stopped playing the romantic lead

The other problem is Allen himself whose still pulls the same shtick that's served him well since the days of the 1960's late-night talk show circuit. It still works but as a vessel for quick quips and erudite wordplay, Woody Allen the man looks like dotty old man clinging to his comedic career like the Great Calvero. Are we truly meant to believe that Sid Waterman's tired magic show is enough to warrant Ricky Jay level audience attendance? Even in his prime, Allen had the stage presence of a salamander newt. In may ways that was part of his charm.

Yet beneath a few casting missteps there is still a good story to be told. Allen aptly balances the more morose themes with a light touch proving that even at his worst he can mix the bleakness of Ingmar Bergman with the absurdity of a David Ives. And you can tell by the subtle visual motifs that Allen still has a sharp cinematic literacy, calling back to classics like Suspicion (1941) and A Place in the Sun (1951).

Woody Allen doesn't make bad films. I write this knowing that as an unabashed fan and completest, I will one day have to sit through Anything Else (2003). Yet if anyone is more deserving of a pass it's Woody Allen. He's made a feature film every year since 1969; most of which are not only good but award worthy. Scoop won't win any awards and certainly won't be anyone's favorite but with a breezy and fun little story, at least it's not a total failure.

Final Grade: D-