Scoop

This odd fizzle of a comedy stars the annoying Johansson as an American journalism student on an extended English vacation who is fortuitously visited by the ghost of a recently deceased investigative journalist (McShane). The spirit tells her that a prominent aristocrat (Jackman) is the serial murderer known as the Tarot Card Killer. Armed with this inside poop and seconded by Allen, who plays a kvetchy stage magician, she goes after the story but ends up falling in love with her suave suspect à la Jagged Edge.

The salient trait of the English upper crust as envisioned by Allen is its welcoming and inclusive nature. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers had to brush up on his opera lore to infiltrate the landed gentry in Match Point; here Johansson and Allen pull off a similar coup just by showing up and talking like Woody Allen (yes, both of them do).

Scoop’s stunningly weak script is the absolute nadir of Allen’s comedy writing and has “first draft” stamped all over it. The dialogue is flat, forced, riddled with non sequiturs and (as in Match Point) larded with clunky exposition. The direction is likewise a new low for the once great filmmaker. The comedic chemistry between Allen and Johansson is null and the interaction among all the characters is at times so disconnected that it’s as if they’re all talking to themselves rather than one another.—Cliff Doerksen