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With Scoop, Woody Allen returns to the London of last
year's elegantly made, if overblown, Match
Point, but now in a mood of classic Woody Allen farce.
In a convoluted plot setup, Allen plays Splendini, a third-rate
Catskills-style magician. When he brings Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson), an ambitious
young journalism student visiting in London, on stage as a volunteer, both of them are
shook up by the appearance of the spirit of a recently deceased journalist, Joe Strombel
(Ian McShane), who has a lead on the identity of a serial killer. Pransky, seeing the
chance for a career breakthrough, is determined to follow up on Strombel's clues and she
enlists Allen as her partner, as unlikely a pairing as might be seen on screen this
year.
The suspect is wealthy, handsome Peter Lymann (Hugh Jackson) with whom
Pransky (using the less Jewish, less Brooklyn name, "Spence") quickly becomes
sexually and romantically involved. Lymann's town house and country estate provide eye
candy for the Architectural Digest set. The contrast between Spendini's smarmy
stage presence, carried into the world of British aristocracy, provides the source of some
of the humor. Allen comes up with a handful of his classic zingers (somehow seeming
familiar now, even if new): "I was born in the Hebrew persuasion, but I converted to
narcisssism." and "Excitement in my life is dinner without heartburn."
Hard core Allen fans may find it to be sufficient. The entire exercise runs
to a fast 96 minutes, but a lot of that time is devoted to working out the overwrought
intricacies of plot, with the laughs too few and far between.
Scoop is Woody-ultralite.
- Arthur Lazere
