Friday, August 04, 2006
Scoop (2006)
Director: Woody Allen
Should you see it? If you like Woody you'll like Scoop.
Woody is on a roll. He has made another fine film with the gorgeous Scarlett Johansson in the lead. This time Scarlett plays Allen’s side kick in a murder mystery caper – no, Woody is her (unwilling) side kick as Scarlett, playing Sondra, tries to uncover if Hugh Jackman’s Peter Lyman (Lord Lyman’s son), is a serial killer or if she should marry him. Sondra, a wide-eyed journalism student, gets a tip from the just dead star investigative reporter, Joe Strombel, after he escapes momentarily from Purgatory with a hot lead on the London serial killings. He wants to be a part of one more big scoop and instructs Sondra to investigate Peter Lyman. Sondra enlists Sid Waterman, the hack magician, (Allen) to play her father as they search for enough evidence of Lyman’s guilt to run the story. After her first encounter with Peter at the pool of an exclusive London club Peter is taken with Sondra and invites her (and she invites Sid as he father) into his upper-crust life as a Lord’s son.
Well, Sondra falls for Peter and now she wants to clear Peter of her murder suspicions so she can safely love him. Woody plays, well Woody, and is funnier than he has been a while as Sondra’s father. He nervously warns Sondra against all of her investigative capers, he is hilarious pretending to be a wealth American oil millionaire at the upper class parties at the Lord’s mansion, and the film is littered with old-fashioned but hilarious one-liners and gags. It is a classic Allen performance coupled with classic Allen romantic comedy writing. The film ends not with Peter cleared of murder, a happy couple and a Cinderella ending for Sondra, but rather with a murder conviction and a death. Damn, I love Woody.
Scoop is a little puff of a film but delightfully Woody Allen, which is really all I ask.
My only concern is a few reviewers have been wondering if this will be Woody Allen’s last film. Do they know something? How awful to never have another Allen film to look forward to each year. And I fear it may be true as Scoop ends with a death of perfect irony for all the Woody Allen characters, and it is a wink to all of us who love Arvie Singer in Annie Hall. If he were to go out with a metaphoric on screen death this would be that ending. We can only hope that like the dead reporter in Scoop Allen will feel compelled to come back from Purgatory for at least one last production.
Should you see it? If you like Woody you'll like Scoop.
Woody is on a roll. He has made another fine film with the gorgeous Scarlett Johansson in the lead. This time Scarlett plays Allen’s side kick in a murder mystery caper – no, Woody is her (unwilling) side kick as Scarlett, playing Sondra, tries to uncover if Hugh Jackman’s Peter Lyman (Lord Lyman’s son), is a serial killer or if she should marry him. Sondra, a wide-eyed journalism student, gets a tip from the just dead star investigative reporter, Joe Strombel, after he escapes momentarily from Purgatory with a hot lead on the London serial killings. He wants to be a part of one more big scoop and instructs Sondra to investigate Peter Lyman. Sondra enlists Sid Waterman, the hack magician, (Allen) to play her father as they search for enough evidence of Lyman’s guilt to run the story. After her first encounter with Peter at the pool of an exclusive London club Peter is taken with Sondra and invites her (and she invites Sid as he father) into his upper-crust life as a Lord’s son.
Well, Sondra falls for Peter and now she wants to clear Peter of her murder suspicions so she can safely love him. Woody plays, well Woody, and is funnier than he has been a while as Sondra’s father. He nervously warns Sondra against all of her investigative capers, he is hilarious pretending to be a wealth American oil millionaire at the upper class parties at the Lord’s mansion, and the film is littered with old-fashioned but hilarious one-liners and gags. It is a classic Allen performance coupled with classic Allen romantic comedy writing. The film ends not with Peter cleared of murder, a happy couple and a Cinderella ending for Sondra, but rather with a murder conviction and a death. Damn, I love Woody.
Scoop is a little puff of a film but delightfully Woody Allen, which is really all I ask.
My only concern is a few reviewers have been wondering if this will be Woody Allen’s last film. Do they know something? How awful to never have another Allen film to look forward to each year. And I fear it may be true as Scoop ends with a death of perfect irony for all the Woody Allen characters, and it is a wink to all of us who love Arvie Singer in Annie Hall. If he were to go out with a metaphoric on screen death this would be that ending. We can only hope that like the dead reporter in Scoop Allen will feel compelled to come back from Purgatory for at least one last production.
