Scoop

Light and charming, Scoop blends murder, ghosts, and falling in love. While inside of a magician's magic cabinet, aspiring journalist Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson, Lost in Translation) is visiting by the ghost of a dead reporter (Ian McShane, Deadwood) who has gotten a hot tip in the afterlife: A rising young politician named Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman, X-Men) may be the notorious serial killer who leaves tarot cards by his victims. With the magician (writer-director Woody Allen) in tow, Sondra sneaks her way into Lyman's life--and, despite increasing evidence that the tip is true, finds herself falling in love with him. Scoop is stronger than Allen's last film, the overrated Match Point; moment to moment, scene to scene, it's his most zippy and entertaining movie in years. It still suffers from laziness--Allen seems unwilling to look at the plot's holes and find a way to sew them up--and Allen's own persona, with his now-rote comic stutterings and hesitations, drags on the film's momentum. Despite this, Scoop has flashes of suspense and wit that, in an unknown filmmaker, would be cause for celebration. Also featuring Charles Dance (White Mischief) and Romola Garai (I Capture the Castle), one of the few actresses who can compete with Johansson in lusciousness.