Scoop (2006)

Dashing, Dapper, and Deadly?

Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson), an awkward yet earnest young American journalism student, is on holiday in England. While attending a magic show starring The Great Splendini, aka Sid Waterman (Woody Allen, who also directed), Sondra is recruited from the audience to participate in a magic trick where she has to enter a large box called The Dematerializer.

Inside the box, Sondra meets the ethereal (and deceased) reporter Joe Strombel (Ian McShane) who has crossed back over the River Styx to tell Sondra the identity of the Tarot Card Killer who is running rampant in London.

Sondra shares the information with Sid Waterman and while she is convinced she's got a solid lead, Sid seriously doubts that Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman), a handsome British aristocrat with political ambitions, could possibly be the murderer.

Posing as Jade Spence and her father, a wealthy oilman from Palm Beach, Sondra and Sid weasel their way into Peter Lyman's life to investigate -- with Joe Strombel's ghost to help. In the process, Sondra/Jade falls in love with Lyman and becomes convinced that he couldn't be the murderer while Sid grows certain that Lyman is the Tarot Card Killer.

What ensues is a comedy romp that allowed Woody Allen to spew his funny remarks reminiscent of earlier Allen comedies.

Favorite retort:
Sondra: "You always think the glass is half empty."
Sid: "That's not true. I think the glass is half full. With poison."

This certainly isn't either high comedy nor high mystery but it does prove to be great fun and a relief for me at least from Woody Allen's more angst-ridden and depressing films that I've seen recently.

Rated PG-13 for some sexual content.