Scoop
What makes a good story? And how much can you believe about what anyone tells you?
American journalism student Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson) is just beginning to get an idea. That is, when she’s not trying to interview a famous director, sleeping with him and forgetting to actually get the story. Sondra also has problems understanding what makes a story credible. And a lack of a credible and compelling story is the same weakness of Scoop, the newest film from writer/director Woody Allen.
That’s where British journalist Joe Strombel (Ian McShane) comes in. Joe will do anything to get a good story – even try to cheat death. So while traversing the river Styx at the hands of the Grim Reaper and accompanied by a group of stiffs, he meets a woman who says she was the last victim of the fabled Tarot Card killer. And that the killer, Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman), is the son of a British lord.
In pursuit of his last scoop, Joe manages to contact Sondra as she is placed into a disappearing booth – a dematerializer -- by Sid Waterman (Allen), a Vaudeville-type magician who goes by “the Great Splendini.� Telling her she’s being handed “the biggest story since Jack the Ripper,� Joe becomes an unimpeachable source – if he were alive, that is.
After several tips from Joe, Sondra decides to prove she has what it takes to become a journalist and to break free from her familial destiny as a dental hygienist. But she creates a false persona for herself, introducing Waterman as her father to Lyman and his lordly crowd. The details she uncovers are merely circumstantial. And to make matters worse, she begins to fall in love with Lyman, the subject of her investigation.
Allen’s second consecutive film in London (following Match Point), Scoop provides some entertaining slapstick and barbs, particularly from Allen’s character. “I was brought up in the Hebrew persuasion, but when I got older I converted to narcissism,� he explains to the aristocrats. While the film is entertaining, it lacks the weight of Match Point and of Allen’s best morality plays, such as Crimes and Misdemeanors.
But it does give us the familiar neurotic characters Allen plays best. “I never gain an ounce,� Waterman tells Sondra. “My anxiety attacks work like aerobics.�
The 96-minute film illustrates the level of deception needed to maintain a good story – or a bad lie. In the end, the film turns on the characters’ ability to tell the difference between truth and fiction. But, as the jokes suggest, their collective discernment is somewhat lacking.
As Waterman and Sondra follow Lyman, Allen’s character speculates that perhaps the mysterious British lord is driven by some secret and shameful passion short of murder.
“Maybe he belongs to one of those clubs where they are cross-dressers?� he says. “Or maybe he does folk dancing.� Scoop is full of such fun. But this story has a shorter life than newsprint.
American journalism student Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson) is just beginning to get an idea. That is, when she’s not trying to interview a famous director, sleeping with him and forgetting to actually get the story. Sondra also has problems understanding what makes a story credible. And a lack of a credible and compelling story is the same weakness of Scoop, the newest film from writer/director Woody Allen.
That’s where British journalist Joe Strombel (Ian McShane) comes in. Joe will do anything to get a good story – even try to cheat death. So while traversing the river Styx at the hands of the Grim Reaper and accompanied by a group of stiffs, he meets a woman who says she was the last victim of the fabled Tarot Card killer. And that the killer, Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman), is the son of a British lord.
In pursuit of his last scoop, Joe manages to contact Sondra as she is placed into a disappearing booth – a dematerializer -- by Sid Waterman (Allen), a Vaudeville-type magician who goes by “the Great Splendini.� Telling her she’s being handed “the biggest story since Jack the Ripper,� Joe becomes an unimpeachable source – if he were alive, that is.
After several tips from Joe, Sondra decides to prove she has what it takes to become a journalist and to break free from her familial destiny as a dental hygienist. But she creates a false persona for herself, introducing Waterman as her father to Lyman and his lordly crowd. The details she uncovers are merely circumstantial. And to make matters worse, she begins to fall in love with Lyman, the subject of her investigation.
Allen’s second consecutive film in London (following Match Point), Scoop provides some entertaining slapstick and barbs, particularly from Allen’s character. “I was brought up in the Hebrew persuasion, but when I got older I converted to narcissism,� he explains to the aristocrats. While the film is entertaining, it lacks the weight of Match Point and of Allen’s best morality plays, such as Crimes and Misdemeanors.
But it does give us the familiar neurotic characters Allen plays best. “I never gain an ounce,� Waterman tells Sondra. “My anxiety attacks work like aerobics.�
The 96-minute film illustrates the level of deception needed to maintain a good story – or a bad lie. In the end, the film turns on the characters’ ability to tell the difference between truth and fiction. But, as the jokes suggest, their collective discernment is somewhat lacking.
As Waterman and Sondra follow Lyman, Allen’s character speculates that perhaps the mysterious British lord is driven by some secret and shameful passion short of murder.
“Maybe he belongs to one of those clubs where they are cross-dressers?� he says. “Or maybe he does folk dancing.� Scoop is full of such fun. But this story has a shorter life than newsprint.
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