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Aug. 6th, 2006 11:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vintage_belleAnd so begins the countdown to the end of my job. T minus five days and counting.
I chanced to have an evening with my grandmother tonight. We went to see Scoop, Woody Allen's new movie starring the director himself, Scarlet Johansson and Hugh Jackman.
The story runs thus: We open upon the funeral of one Joe Strombel, former journalist. We then move to see Strombel aboard the barge across the River Styx, where he meets the young secretary to Peter Lyman (played by Jackman), herself only recently dead. When she confesses to him that she believes Lyman to be a serial killer known as the Tarot Card Killer, he, dying for his last big scoop, escapes from death to find a living reporter. Enter Johansson playing Sondra Pransky, a young Jewish girl from Brooklyn, attending journalism school and spending the summer vacationing in London with some friends she met in Palm Beach some time earlier. She goes to see a magic show with her friend and her friend's little brother, and naturally gets chosen for a trick - to enter a box and have her molecules rearranged. While in the box she's treated to a visit by Strombel, which catapults us into the actual movie plot.
The idea is that Pransky is going to investigate into Lyman and find out if he's the Tarot Card Killer. She creates a fake name and life to catch his attention, all for the sake of her investigation, of course, but naturally she falls in love with Lyman instead. He, too, is taken with her, and she attempts to reconcile her head with her heart, and other such nonsense.
The movie is fabulously directed, and there is lovely scenery and gratuitous footage of Jackman minus a shirt. The soundtrack was quite nice, being mostly suites from The Swan Lake Ballet, as well as Peer Gynt suites and various other ear-pleasing pieces. There were also some very funny moments, as the dialogue is nothing short of brilliant. Unfortunately, there's not much else. As much as I think Woody Allen is a fabulous director, I don't particularly like his acting - which he's never been very good at. He comes across as neurotic, mostly, which gets annoying after a while - and he's a major player in the film. Jackman and Johansson really don't have much chemistry together, either, though both of them play their roles out beautifully. Also, Johansson - not vibing with the Jewish Brooklyner. It just doesn't work.
What it comes down to is that the movie is entertaining, but not the stuff of Oscars. Still, it's more than worth it to see Hugh Jackman.
I chanced to have an evening with my grandmother tonight. We went to see Scoop, Woody Allen's new movie starring the director himself, Scarlet Johansson and Hugh Jackman.
The story runs thus: We open upon the funeral of one Joe Strombel, former journalist. We then move to see Strombel aboard the barge across the River Styx, where he meets the young secretary to Peter Lyman (played by Jackman), herself only recently dead. When she confesses to him that she believes Lyman to be a serial killer known as the Tarot Card Killer, he, dying for his last big scoop, escapes from death to find a living reporter. Enter Johansson playing Sondra Pransky, a young Jewish girl from Brooklyn, attending journalism school and spending the summer vacationing in London with some friends she met in Palm Beach some time earlier. She goes to see a magic show with her friend and her friend's little brother, and naturally gets chosen for a trick - to enter a box and have her molecules rearranged. While in the box she's treated to a visit by Strombel, which catapults us into the actual movie plot.
The idea is that Pransky is going to investigate into Lyman and find out if he's the Tarot Card Killer. She creates a fake name and life to catch his attention, all for the sake of her investigation, of course, but naturally she falls in love with Lyman instead. He, too, is taken with her, and she attempts to reconcile her head with her heart, and other such nonsense.
The movie is fabulously directed, and there is lovely scenery and gratuitous footage of Jackman minus a shirt. The soundtrack was quite nice, being mostly suites from The Swan Lake Ballet, as well as Peer Gynt suites and various other ear-pleasing pieces. There were also some very funny moments, as the dialogue is nothing short of brilliant. Unfortunately, there's not much else. As much as I think Woody Allen is a fabulous director, I don't particularly like his acting - which he's never been very good at. He comes across as neurotic, mostly, which gets annoying after a while - and he's a major player in the film. Jackman and Johansson really don't have much chemistry together, either, though both of them play their roles out beautifully. Also, Johansson - not vibing with the Jewish Brooklyner. It just doesn't work.
What it comes down to is that the movie is entertaining, but not the stuff of Oscars. Still, it's more than worth it to see Hugh Jackman.
