Scoop

Reviewed by:
Pete Hammond

At 70 years old and following a string of creatively diminished films, Woody Allen had hit rock bottom when his nervy, steaming hot drama, Match Point, put him back in the game. Now, just six months later, he is back with Scoop. Like Match Point, the film deals with romance and murder among the British elite. It’s the ideal companion piece to his 2005 thriller—a perfectly cast comic confection that’s bright, sinfully clever, and packed with laughs. Allen cast himself as a cheesy magician who, with the help of tyro journalist Scarlett Johansson, stumbles onto the key to an unsolved series of murders terrorizing England. Fortunately, Woody isn’t trying to pass himself off as the love interest, leaving that duty to Hugh Jackman. Allen didn’t appear in Match Point, but here he is back in style in his funniest movie in many years, with Johansson and Jackman teaming to deliver a first-class sophisticated farce.

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