Light But Absolutely Hilarious Woody

Scoop (4/5 stars)

Scoop, the latest from Woody Allen, is one of the funniest films I've seen in a long time. A departure from his latest drama Match Point, this movie makes no attempt to be deep and instead provides a nice farce that proves to be very enjoyable.

The story is that Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson), a journalism student, is visted by the ghost of a recently deceased reporter Joe Strombel (Ian McShane, Deadwood), who tips her off to the potential identity of a multiple murderer called the Tarot Card Killer while she is in the middle of participating in a disappearing-inside-a-box magic trick during a show given by magician Sid Waterman (Woody Allen). He claims that the identity of the killer is rich English socialite Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman). Later on, both Sondra and Sid witness the ghost again, and the investigation is on. They arrange to meet their suspected killer, providing false identies as rich Americans (with Allen pretending to be Johansson's father), in order to gain access to his dwelling to find clues which might help them find their "scoop", the real story. A snag hits in their investigation when Johannson becomes romantically interested in her investigative subject.

The plot isn't so important here though, what is really important is this movie is downright, absolutely hilarious completely throughout. I haven't laughed so consistently during a movie for quite some time (and judging from the audience I was with, I'm not the only one). Allen is his usual overly neurotic self, and provides brilliantly hilarious dialogue. Johansson is is superb as his foil, with her determination to get the story and seriousness undermining his absurd and erratic behavior. McShane is good as a small player in the scenes he is in (I especially like the use of the ship sailing to what must be the River Stix; at one point he actually jumps off the ship as he is so determined to get his information to somebody that is alive). The one weak cast-member might be Jackman; while he is competant mostly for what he is given there are a few parts that don't ring true.

Some might say that this is very similar to some of Allen's other movies, but if it is still really funny, does that matter so much? I don't think it does. It is absolutely great for what it is. The only flaw I really see is that the way the mystery is wrapped up feels very forced and untrue. But that is only one part towards the end, and the mystery portion of the movie isn't really the reason to go in the first place. Thus, if you are interesting in seeing a good mystery movie this probably isn't for you. But if you would like to see a deliciously absurd farce with Woody playing at his comedic best with a great partner in Johansson, I wholeheartedly recommend it.