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Scoop (2006 film)
Encyclopedia
Scoop is a 2006 American-British romantic comedy
/murder mystery written and directed by Woody Allen
and starring Hugh Jackman
, Scarlett Johansson
, Ian McShane
, and Allen himself. Focus Features
released the film.
with several others, including a young woman who believes she was poisoned by her employer, Peter Lyman (Jackman). The woman tells Strombel she thinks Lyman, a handsome British aristocrat with political ambitions, may be the Tarot
Card Killer, a notorious serial killer
of prostitutes, and that he killed her when she stumbled onto his secret. The Tarot Card Killer left a card on each dead body after each murder.
Sondra Pransky (Johansson) is a beautiful but somewhat awkward American college journalism student on vacation in London
. Pransky attends a performance given by magician Sid Waterman (Allen), aka "The Great Splendini," and agrees to participate on the stage. While in a booth known as The Dematerializer, Pransky encounters Strombel's ghost. The ghost has escaped the Grim Reaper himself to impart his suspicions of Lyman to a journalist who can investigate the story (a scene influenced by one from Federico Fellini
’s Nights of Cabiria
, in which a stage musician about to be exposed as a fraud performs actual magic). Sondra decides to infiltrate Lyman's privileged world and find out if he truly is the dreaded criminal, enlisting Sid in the process and taking advantage of his powers of deception.
Sondra catches Lyman's attention by pretending to drown near him at an exclusive club's swimming pool. When he rescues her, she introduces herself as Jade Spence, daughter of a wealthy oil family from Palm Beach
. While Sid poses as her father, "Jade" begins dating Lyman. As the deception begins, Sondra is convinced Lyman is the murderer while Sid finds it impossible to believe. But as the film progresses and Sondra falls in love with Lyman, she begins to trust him as well. Meanwhile, Sid becomes less sanguine about Lyman as he notices more and more inconsistencies, especially after he and Sondra find a Tarot
deck hidden under a French horn in Peter's vault, a climate-controlled music room containing expensive antique musical instruments. Sid finally prevails upon Sondra to write a news story implicating Lyman, but the newspaper editor refuses the story because of Sondra's lack of proof. Throughout their investigations, Sid and Sondra have a relationship that is in turns friendly, paternal, and also antagonistic—fueled, largely by Sondra's annoyance that her smooth "Jade Spence" charade is being compromised by Sid's obnoxious attempts to act the part of a nouveau riche oil baron.
Soon thereafter, however, the police arrest the real Tarot Card Killer. Sondra, relieved that her suspicions were for naught, reveals her real name and the deception she and Sid had practiced. Lyman is surprisingly gracious, and tells Sondra he desires to keep seeing her. They plan to spend the weekend at Lyman's isolated country estate. Later, Sid (at Strombel's urging) suggests that Peter used the Tarot Card murders to cover up a murder he committed.
While Sondra and Lyman vacation in the country, Sid continues to investigate this theory. He finds that Lyman did frequent a prostitute, Betty Gibson, who was later killed, apparently by the Tarot Card Killer. Gibson is described as a "baby-faced blonde" (just like Sondra) before Peter convinced her to dye her hair, presumably to match the profile of the other Tarot victims. When Sid calls Sondra with his findings, she waves them off. Unbeknownst to her, Peter is ominously listening in on another extension.
As the film approaches its climax, Sid breaks into Lyman's vault again, this time finding a mysterious key, which turns out to be for Betty Gibson's flat. Meanwhile, out on a rowboat in Lyman's lake, Peter confesses to Sondra that he killed Gibson to stop her blackmailing him, and he used the Tarot Card pattern to allay suspicion, just as Strombel had told Sid. Peter comments on the irony that he first met Sondra by saving her from drowning, and now she really would drown. He would kill Sid later; no one would connect an obscure stage magician's death to that of a clumsy journalism student. This scene is intercut with shots of Sid driving madly to the Lyman estate to rescue Sondra, a shot interrupted by an off-camera crash.
After his confession, Peter throws Sondra into the lake and watches her go under. He then calls the police to report her drowning death. When they question him, he tells them of how Sondra was a terrible swimmer and how she almost drowned that first day at the pool. Suddenly, Sondra enters, soaking wet but smiling cheerfully. She informs Peter and the police that the drowning had been an act to get his attention, and actually she was a very good swimmer.
The penultimate scene of the film takes place back in the newspaper offices. The editor who previously rejected Sondra's article now congratulates Sondra on a brilliant piece of investigative journalism, the start of a promising career. This scene also reveals that the appearance of Peter's cufflink at the earlier murder was a coincidence resulting from the fact that he regularly visited prostitutes.
Sondra seems flattered, and says she must also credit Joe Strombel and the late Sid Waterman, Splendini. The final scene of the film shows Sid, now himself a passenger on the Reaper's ship, performing for his fellow spirits the same magical gags and comedy routines he did in life.
The film is the second of Allen's films (the other being Hollywood Ending
) not to have a UK theatrical release. However, it was given a British TV premiere on February 7, 2009 on BBC Two
.
As is often the case with Allen's films, there is no original score. Most of the music pieces heard in the film are ones composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
, Johann Strauss Jr., and Edvard Grieg
.
reported that the film received 38 percent positive reviews, based on 132 reviews. Metacritic
reported the film had an average score of 48 out of 100, based on 35 reviews.
Stephen Hunter
, of The Washington Post
called it the "worst movie Woody Allen has ever made":
At the other extreme, Mick LaSalle
of the San Francisco Chronicle
, who also gave positive reviews to Allen's Melinda and Melinda
, called it "the funniest movie of the year so far" and Allen's funniest film in a decade. He also said:
Manohla Dargis
of The New York Times
called it "not especially funny yet oddly appealing":
Ty Burr
of The Boston Globe
called it "fluffy, fatally implausible farce
":
listed its opening as the biggest limited release premiere of 2006. By the time the film's domestic run had ended on September 28, 2006, it grossed $10,525,717 in the U.S. and $39,212,510 worldwide. The film had a $4 million budget, not including prints and advertising expense.
Romantic Comedy
Romantic Comedy can refer to* Romantic Comedy , a 1979 play written by Bernard Slade* Romantic Comedy , a 1983 film adapted from the play and starring Dudley Moore and Mary Steenburgen...
/murder mystery written and directed by Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
and starring Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman
Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor and producer who is involved in film, musical theatre, and television.Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as action/superhero, period and romance characters...
, Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer.Johansson made her film debut in North and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo . She rose to further prominence with her roles in The Horse Whisperer and Ghost World...
, Ian McShane
Ian McShane
Ian David McShane is an English actor, director, producer, voice artist, and comedian.Despite appearing in numerous films, McShane is best known for his television roles, particularly the BBC's Lovejoy and HBO's Western drama Deadwood...
, and Allen himself. Focus Features
Focus Features
Focus Features is the art house films division of NBC Universal's Universal Pictures, and acts as both a producer and distributor for its own films and a distributor for foreign films....
released the film.
Plot
Following the memorial service for irrepressible investigative reporter Joe Strombel (McShane), Strombel's spirit finds himself on the barge of deathCharon (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay Charon for passage, usually an obolus or danake, was sometimes placed in or on...
with several others, including a young woman who believes she was poisoned by her employer, Peter Lyman (Jackman). The woman tells Strombel she thinks Lyman, a handsome British aristocrat with political ambitions, may be the Tarot
Tarot
The tarot |trionfi]] and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of cards , used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot...
Card Killer, a notorious serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
of prostitutes, and that he killed her when she stumbled onto his secret. The Tarot Card Killer left a card on each dead body after each murder.
Sondra Pransky (Johansson) is a beautiful but somewhat awkward American college journalism student on vacation in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Pransky attends a performance given by magician Sid Waterman (Allen), aka "The Great Splendini," and agrees to participate on the stage. While in a booth known as The Dematerializer, Pransky encounters Strombel's ghost. The ghost has escaped the Grim Reaper himself to impart his suspicions of Lyman to a journalist who can investigate the story (a scene influenced by one from Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
’s Nights of Cabiria
Nights of Cabiria
Nights of Cabiria is a 1957 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini. Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, plays Cabiria Ceccarelli, a feisty but naive prostitute in Ostia, then a seedy section of Rome...
, in which a stage musician about to be exposed as a fraud performs actual magic). Sondra decides to infiltrate Lyman's privileged world and find out if he truly is the dreaded criminal, enlisting Sid in the process and taking advantage of his powers of deception.
Sondra catches Lyman's attention by pretending to drown near him at an exclusive club's swimming pool. When he rescues her, she introduces herself as Jade Spence, daughter of a wealthy oil family from Palm Beach
Palm Beach, Florida
The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...
. While Sid poses as her father, "Jade" begins dating Lyman. As the deception begins, Sondra is convinced Lyman is the murderer while Sid finds it impossible to believe. But as the film progresses and Sondra falls in love with Lyman, she begins to trust him as well. Meanwhile, Sid becomes less sanguine about Lyman as he notices more and more inconsistencies, especially after he and Sondra find a Tarot
Tarot
The tarot |trionfi]] and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of cards , used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot...
deck hidden under a French horn in Peter's vault, a climate-controlled music room containing expensive antique musical instruments. Sid finally prevails upon Sondra to write a news story implicating Lyman, but the newspaper editor refuses the story because of Sondra's lack of proof. Throughout their investigations, Sid and Sondra have a relationship that is in turns friendly, paternal, and also antagonistic—fueled, largely by Sondra's annoyance that her smooth "Jade Spence" charade is being compromised by Sid's obnoxious attempts to act the part of a nouveau riche oil baron.
Soon thereafter, however, the police arrest the real Tarot Card Killer. Sondra, relieved that her suspicions were for naught, reveals her real name and the deception she and Sid had practiced. Lyman is surprisingly gracious, and tells Sondra he desires to keep seeing her. They plan to spend the weekend at Lyman's isolated country estate. Later, Sid (at Strombel's urging) suggests that Peter used the Tarot Card murders to cover up a murder he committed.
While Sondra and Lyman vacation in the country, Sid continues to investigate this theory. He finds that Lyman did frequent a prostitute, Betty Gibson, who was later killed, apparently by the Tarot Card Killer. Gibson is described as a "baby-faced blonde" (just like Sondra) before Peter convinced her to dye her hair, presumably to match the profile of the other Tarot victims. When Sid calls Sondra with his findings, she waves them off. Unbeknownst to her, Peter is ominously listening in on another extension.
As the film approaches its climax, Sid breaks into Lyman's vault again, this time finding a mysterious key, which turns out to be for Betty Gibson's flat. Meanwhile, out on a rowboat in Lyman's lake, Peter confesses to Sondra that he killed Gibson to stop her blackmailing him, and he used the Tarot Card pattern to allay suspicion, just as Strombel had told Sid. Peter comments on the irony that he first met Sondra by saving her from drowning, and now she really would drown. He would kill Sid later; no one would connect an obscure stage magician's death to that of a clumsy journalism student. This scene is intercut with shots of Sid driving madly to the Lyman estate to rescue Sondra, a shot interrupted by an off-camera crash.
After his confession, Peter throws Sondra into the lake and watches her go under. He then calls the police to report her drowning death. When they question him, he tells them of how Sondra was a terrible swimmer and how she almost drowned that first day at the pool. Suddenly, Sondra enters, soaking wet but smiling cheerfully. She informs Peter and the police that the drowning had been an act to get his attention, and actually she was a very good swimmer.
The penultimate scene of the film takes place back in the newspaper offices. The editor who previously rejected Sondra's article now congratulates Sondra on a brilliant piece of investigative journalism, the start of a promising career. This scene also reveals that the appearance of Peter's cufflink at the earlier murder was a coincidence resulting from the fact that he regularly visited prostitutes.
Sondra seems flattered, and says she must also credit Joe Strombel and the late Sid Waterman, Splendini. The final scene of the film shows Sid, now himself a passenger on the Reaper's ship, performing for his fellow spirits the same magical gags and comedy routines he did in life.
Cast
- Scarlett JohanssonScarlett JohanssonScarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer.Johansson made her film debut in North and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo . She rose to further prominence with her roles in The Horse Whisperer and Ghost World...
as Sondra Pransky - Woody AllenWoody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
as Sid Waterman - Hugh JackmanHugh JackmanHugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor and producer who is involved in film, musical theatre, and television.Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as action/superhero, period and romance characters...
as Peter Lyman - Ian McShaneIan McShaneIan David McShane is an English actor, director, producer, voice artist, and comedian.Despite appearing in numerous films, McShane is best known for his television roles, particularly the BBC's Lovejoy and HBO's Western drama Deadwood...
as Joe Strombel - Charles DanceCharles DanceWalter Charles Dance, OBE is an English actor, screenwriter and director. Dance typically plays assertive bureaucrats or villains. His most famous roles are Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown , Dr Clemens, the doctor of penitentiary Fury 161, who becomes Ellen Ripley's confidante in Alien 3 ,...
as Mr. Malcom - Romola GaraiRomola GaraiRomola Sadie Garai is an English actress. She is known for appearing in the movies Amazing Grace, Atonement, and Glorious 39, and for appearing in the BBC adaptation of Emma.-Early life:...
as Vivian - Kevin R. McNallyKevin McNallyKevin McNally is an English actor who has worked in theatre and radio extensively as well as in film and television.-Life and career:...
as Mike Tinsley - Julian GloverJulian GloverJulian Wyatt Glover is a British actor best known for such roles as General Maximilian Veers in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, the Bond villain Aristotle Kristatos in For Your Eyes Only, and Walter Donovan in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.-Personal life:Glover was born in...
as Lord Lyman - Victoria HamiltonVictoria HamiltonVictoria Sharp is an English actress who performs under the stage name Victoria Hamilton.-Early life:Hamilton was born on 5 April 1971 in Wimbledon, London, England, and grew up in Godalming, Surrey. She trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.-Career:Hamilton is best known for her...
as Jan - Fenella WoolgarFenella WoolgarFenella Woolgar is an English actress. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1999 and has since appeared in several film, television and theatre productions. She also works as an audio book narrator and voice over artist...
as Jane Cook - Geoff BellGeoff Bell (actor)Geoff Bell is an English actor.-Career:He has appeared in many films, mostly as a cameo appearance or as a supporting role.He has appeared in Girl with a Pearl Earring, Stardust, The Long Firm, Making Waves, The Business and RocknRolla.One of his most well-known films is Green Street, where he...
as Strombel's Co-Worker - Alexander ArmstrongAlexander Armstrong (comedian)Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong is a British comedian, actor and television presenter.-Early life and career:Armstrong was born in Rothbury, Northumberland, the youngest of three children, to Henry Angus Armstrong and his wife Emma Virginia Peronnet Thompson-McCausland, daughter of Lucius...
as A Cop - Anthony HeadAnthony HeadAnthony Stewart Head , usually credited as Anthony Head, is an English actor and musician. He rose to fame in the UK following his role in television advertisements for Nescafé Gold Blend , and is known for his roles as Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and as Uther Pendragon in...
as A Detective
Production
The lead character (originally an adult journalist) was tailored specifically to Johansson, whom Allen observed as having an unutilized "funny" quality about her while working on the previous film, Match Point.The film is the second of Allen's films (the other being Hollywood Ending
Hollywood Ending
Hollywood Ending is a 2002 American film written and directed by Woody Allen, who also plays the principal character. It tells the story of a once-famous film director who suffers hysterical blindness due to the intense pressure of directing.-Plot:...
) not to have a UK theatrical release. However, it was given a British TV premiere on February 7, 2009 on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
.
As is often the case with Allen's films, there is no original score. Most of the music pieces heard in the film are ones composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
, Johann Strauss Jr., and Edvard Grieg
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
.
Critical reception
The film received generally mixed reviews from critics. As of January 21, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that the film received 38 percent positive reviews, based on 132 reviews. Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
reported the film had an average score of 48 out of 100, based on 35 reviews.
Stephen Hunter
Stephen Hunter
Stephen Hunter is an American novelist, essayist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic.-Life and career:Stephen Hunter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Evanston, Illinois. His father was Charles Francis Hunter, a Northwestern University speech professor who was killed in 1975....
, of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
called it the "worst movie Woody Allen has ever made":
- Basically the movie decodes into a Hardy BoysThe Hardy BoysThe Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional teenage brothers and amateur detectives who appear in various mystery series for children and teens....
-level mystery. It's not, of course, that comedies must display documentary realism on this sort of thing. You forgive anything in a movie if it's funny. Scoop is never funny enough — except for the odd, whiny Allen gibe, mainly because it recalls better days — to achieve this dispensation; the lack of realism becomes a crippling attribute. This gives nobody, least of all me, any pleasure, but a truth must be faced: Scoop is the worst movie Woody Allen has ever made.
At the other extreme, Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle is an American Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] [[film reviewer] and the author of two books on pre-[[Motion Picture Production Code|Hays Code]] Hollywood...
of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
, who also gave positive reviews to Allen's Melinda and Melinda
Melinda and Melinda
Melinda and Melinda is a 2004 film written and directed by Woody Allen. It was premiered at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. The film is set in Manhattan and stars Radha Mitchell as the protagonist Melinda, in two storylines; one comic, one tragic...
, called it "the funniest movie of the year so far" and Allen's funniest film in a decade. He also said:
- Scoop has something Match PointMatch PointMatch Point is a 2005 dramatic thriller film written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer, Matthew Goode, Brian Cox and Penelope Wilton....
didn't, something that none of Allen's films have had to quite this degree in 10 years. It's really, really funny. Not funny "heh-heh," but laugh-out-loud funny. Funny like you walk out wanting to tell your friends its best lines. Funny like you're walking down the street and remember a moment and start laughing like an idiot. Woody Allen has written himself an ideal role, creating a character and a situation that result in a continuous stream of winning bits. And he's paired himself with a partner in Scarlett Johansson who brings deftness and freshness to Allen's familiar comic universe.
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with A.O. Scott. She was formerly a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice. She has written for a variety of publications, including Film Comment and...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called it "not especially funny yet oddly appealing":
- Mr. Allen doesn’t seem to be working terribly hard in Scoop, and while that makes for some apparent goofs and lots of ragged edges, it gives the whole thing a pleasantly carefree vibe. After the first 20 or so clunky minutes, the film settles into a groove and then, ever so slightly, deepens. Mr. Allen’s invocation of the Thin Man films in an interview makes sense, even if he’s no William PowellWilliam PowellWilliam Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...
and Ms. Johansson is certainly no Myrna LoyMyrna LoyMyrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
. Scoop was made by someone who understands that what makes the “Thin Man” series enduring isn’t whodunitWhodunitA whodunit or whodunnit is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle is the main feature of interest. The reader or viewer is provided with clues from which the identity of the perpetrator of the crime may be deduced before the solution is revealed in the final...
and why, but the way Nick and NoraNick and Nora CharlesNick and Nora Charles are fictional characters created by Dashiell Hammett in his novel The Thin Man. The characters were later adapted for film in a series of movies between 1934 and 1947; for radio from 1941 to 1950; for television from 1957 through 1959; as a Broadway musical in 1991; and as a...
look at each other as they sip their martinis, Asta nipping at their heels.
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Ty Burr has been a film critic for the Boston Globe since 2002 where he reviews films alongside Wesley Morris.Born in 1957, he studied film at Dartmouth College and New York University and has written three books: The Hundred Greatest Movies of All Time, The Hundred Greatest Stars of All Time and...
of The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
called it "fluffy, fatally implausible farce
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
":
- You can assume this kind of humor goes over well with the Europeans who are the director's financial backers and primary audience these days. Like Charlie ChaplinCharlie ChaplinSir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
in his final years, Allen has found refuge in exile, far from the US audiences who have turned their backs on him (because we're lowbrow slobs or because his films have stopped being very good; your call). When we see him onstage as The Great Splendini, Allen even eerily resembles Chaplin in "Limelight," shyly smiling out at the audience with the comedian's eternal hope of unconditional love. Does he see anything besides the beautiful young woman and himself? Sweet and woebegone, "Scoop" says no.
Box office
Scoop opened in 538 American theatres on July 28, 2006. In its first three days, it grossed $3,046,924 for a per-theatre-average of $5,663. Box Office MojoBox Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. Brandon Gray started the site in 1999. In 2002, Gray partnered with Sean Saulsbury and they grew the site to nearly two million readers when, in July 2008, the company was purchased by Amazon.com through...
listed its opening as the biggest limited release premiere of 2006. By the time the film's domestic run had ended on September 28, 2006, it grossed $10,525,717 in the U.S. and $39,212,510 worldwide. The film had a $4 million budget, not including prints and advertising expense.