Starring Scarlett Johansson, Woody Allen, Hugh Jackman
One of the coolest, most delightful movies I have had a pleasure to see in a long time! An unbelievable story of a ghost of a journalist who is ready to pursue a sensational story beyond his grave is turning into a very funny, sparkling and sizzling spectacle where Scarlett Johansson has a chance to dazzle us again, with plenty of help from Woody Allen and Hugh Jackman.
Joe Strombel, a bulldog of a journalist with the fierce reputation of someone who never let the a sensational story slip past him unnoticed, dies an untimely death in pursuit of one of such stories More…and on his journey over to another world (in a boat with the Grim Reaper at the helm!) he gets into a conversation with a female passenger, a secretary to Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman), the son of a powerful aristocrat. The woman intimates that she might have been poisoned, because she noticed one her employer’s cufflinks is missing and it corresponds exactly to the one found near the strangled prostitute in a string of serial murders. Peter Lyman might be a serial killer dubbed by the press as tarot card killer for leaving a card near the victims and Joe can’t leave the story alone. He needs to pursue it, but he can’t do it directly. Enter Sondra Pranski( Scarlett Johansson), a sweet All-American girl who is studying journalism in the Adair University in England. Sondra has no experience in journalism, in fact, her only stab at a serious interview ended in the bed of the celebrity she intended to interview and his abrupt disappearance right after that – sans interview.
But the fate has it that Sondra, who attends a séance of magic with the “great magician†Splendini (in reality a small time trickster by the name of Sid Waterman – fantastic role of Woody Allen!), is invited to participate in the act of dematerializion, involving a certain Chinese box and, once in a box, she comes into contact with Joe Strombel’s ghost, who briefly describes the scoop with Peter Lyman to her and implores her to conduct the investigation on his behalf, since he is currently somewhat incapacitated.
Enthusiastic at first, Sondra looks for the way to get closer to Peter and her friend comes up with the idea of visiting the exclusive pool where Peter is a member.
Sondra rushes over there with Sid in tow and fakes a drowning accident, where Peter gets to save her. Intrigued by a pretty girl Peter invites her to a party on his father’s estate and that’s how Sondra and Sid (introduced as her father) get an access to Peter and his home. Sondra soon falls in love with him and tries to convince herself that Peter can not be the tarot card killer, even as the evidence keeps popping up here and there and everywhere, so Sid takes it upon himself to move the investigation further.
In the end his rush to save Sondra from Peter probably does not mean all that much in the grand scheme of things as Peter tries to drown Sondra in his private lake not knowing that she is an excellent swimmer and his game ends when she appears unharmed, but dripping wet in front of the eyes of the police to accuse him of an attempt of murder. I won’t say what happened to Sidney – that was a surprise finale for me, I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, suffice it to say that the movie evokes bitter-sweet laughter right till the end.
Scarlett Johansson, of course, was the one for whom the story was written as Woody Allen was impressed working with her during his previous movie and she is perfect for the role – the combination of naïve and cunning, the unstoppable energy at the beginning of the investigation and the desire to overlook important facts, because they concerned the man she was in love with – she portrayed all that beautifully.
Sid Waterman, aka Splendini was in Woody Allen’s interpretation an ordinary man, who still was opened to the extraordinary and what’s more - who progressed from someone with a lot of cynicism towards the world to someone caring and willing to put his life down for the person he cared about.
Hugh Jackman was a perfect man right until the end, where he explains how he already kill a couple of people and how Sondra has to die too – quite a chilling change!
All in all Scoop is a very amusing and entertaining movie that I’d recommend everyone to see