"Scoop" is not exactly Woody Allen back in top-notch comedy form, but there's a giddy, debonair humor to it that makes you think he was really happy when making this film. And that is probably due to the fact that he was working with Scarlett Johansson for the second time in a row after the dark, stylish morality tale "Match Point."
Interviews with Allen during the making of these two pictures show him atypically chatty, barely hiding his enthusiasm over getting to monopolize the lovely Scarlett, and in London — his city of choice since absconding from New York.
About 10 years ago Allen was still playing Romeo to his various desirable costars on-screen — the director was then in his 60s and the sight of him in a passionate embrace with actresses decades younger didn't go over very well with the critics. Now 72, the director has relinquished the role of ardent lover and relegated himself to playing Johansson's father figure, albeit one with numerous tics, speech defects and enough nervous tension to inflate a tire. Any amount of time spent in this dad's company will drive a daughter clinically insane, but as the daughter is none other than Johansson, she's used to the idiosyncrasies of old guys (after all, what was "Lost in Translation," if not a taming of the creased and moody Bill Murray?) and can switch from nubile nymph to brainy nurse-companion to girlishly cute at the slightest flicker of her long eyelashes. No wonder Allen looks ready to dissolve in ecstasy.