– a surprise mid-summer treat from the most famous Hollywood neurotic, Woody Allen, who’s managed to find his second wind, re-teaming with Scarlett Johansson, again in London, with yet another murderous plot (following last year’s “Match Point”). In this comical farce, Sondra Pransky (Johansson) is a ditzy student journalist, who gets the scoop of a lifetime from a deceased ghost, named Joe Strombel (Ian McShane). Strombel can’t rest in peace until the dreaded “Tarot Card serial killer” – rich, dashing, Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman) son of Lord Lyman (Julian Glover) – is caught. And the scoop comes when Johansson is placed in a magical box during the act of a Brooklyn magician, Sidney Waterman (Woody Allen) a.k.a. The Great Splendini. When Johansson must engage Allen in the solving of the murder, Allen is off and running, reminiscent of the reluctant Whoopi Goldberg role in “Ghost.” Johansson proves she’s not only sexy, but screwball-quirky (a combination she’s never delivered in any of her movies from “Lost In Translation” to “In Good Company”). There’s a silly chemistry with Jackman, though we’re never convinced such an aristocrat would have any use for her, beyond a one night stand. Nor are we convinced that a young, hungry, journalist would have such a dead-weight schlep as Allen, to drag down her case. Nevertheless, Allen’s shtick is amusing, familiar and laugh-out-loud funny, even if at times he’s just rambling on in trite sentences, and wringing his hands. But at a well-paced 96 minutes it’s just long enough to leave the audience satisfied. Case closed.
