Scoop

In London, during a stage act, the ghost of a dead journalist hands an American journalism student named Sondra a tip: the aristocrat Peter Lyman may be a serial killer. She investigates with a magician, and as she gets closer she falls for the suspect. Woody Allen wrote, directed and appears as the magician Splendini. Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman star, with Ian McShane as the dead reporter. Allen tailored the part for Johansson, saying he had noticed her untapped comic ability while working with her on Match Point. Focus Features released it on 28 July 2006. It was shot in London but got no UK theatrical release, only a television premiere in 2009. The reviews split and the extremes were far apart. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 41 percent. Stephen Hunter in The Washington Post declared it the worst film Woody Allen has ever made; Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle called it the funniest film of the year so far. The box office was good: 39 million dollars worldwide on a 4 million budget. Who it is for: viewers who like Allen's lighter comedies and jokey ghost mysteries. Who it is not for: anyone expecting Match Point from the same period. It shares a city and nothing else.