Full Review

Shooting in the United Kingdom has given Woody Allen an artistic shot in the arm, and so it is that "Scoop" (Focus), the lightweight but entertaining follow-up to the excellent drama "Match Point," proves another winner.

The setting is, again, London. Scarlett Johansson is back, not in her usual glamour puss mode, but as comically gauche journalism student Sondra Pransky, determined to land an exclusive interview with sleazy director Mike Tinsley (Kevin McNally), even if it means sleeping with him.

Attending a local variety show one night, she is recruited by second-rate magician Sid Waterman (aka Splendini) (Woody Allen) to participate in his disappearing act.

When she enters his "magic" box, she is confronted by the ghost of investigative reporter Joe Strombel (Ian McShane), whom we have already seen on the boat to Hades, where one of the other recently departed souls (Fenella Woolgar) told him that her sudden death may have been the handiwork of one Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman), wealthy son of a British lord, and very likely the Jack the Ripper-like "Tarot Card Killer" who has murdered a dozen prostitutes.

Joe relates this to Sondra, who, after the show, informs the incredulous Sid what has transpired. Just as he's about to dismiss her as a kook, he sees Joe for himself.

Thereafter, Sondra and Sid, now posing as her dad, assume aliases and join forces to verify Joe's tip. They get to know Lyman by orchestrating a chance meeting at his exclusive club, where she pretends to be drowning in the club pool. After Lyman "rescues" her, he invites father and daughter to the family estate, and the inevitable romance ensues. There are no overt sex scenes, but it's unfortunate, and puzzling from a dramatic standpoint too, that Sondra is willing to be so blithely seduced into bed by Lyman as she was by Tinsley.

Sondra continues to have an eye on her breakthrough story, and tries to convince Joe's disbelieving editor, Mr. Malcolm (Charles Dance), that she's onto something.

Thereafter, the film takes on something of the form of Hitchcock's "Suspicion," where Joan Fontaine wondered if Cary Grant was a killer -- though here, Sondra has too much self-possession to ever seem truly frightened.

With this film, director-writer Allen returns to something approaching his early comic form, though the plot has some remarkable parallels to "Match Point," including yet another nod to Theodore Dreiser's novel, "An American Tragedy."

Allen and Johansson make likable sparring partners. It's fun to see Allen in his early wisecracking mode, facing up to the swells at the Lyman estate with his trademark shtick. And though you may not buy Johansson as a stereotypical Brooklyn, N.Y., gal, she's an engaging presence throughout.

Character development is admittedly sketchy, with Lyman particularly lightly drawn, though he must, of course, remain enigmatic. Numerous familiar faces from British TV and cinema make appearances, some quite short: John Standing, Caroline Blakiston, Richard Johnson, Victoria Hamilton, Meg Wynn Owen and Margaret Tyzack, among them.

Allen's next film is to be shot in London -- now more than ever a promising prospect.

This film contains a few instances of profanity, a promiscuous heroine, premarital situations and a minor prostitution theme. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

The classifications are as follows:

• A-I -- general patronage;
• A-II -- adults and adolescents;
• A-III -- adults;
• A-IV**
• L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
• O -- morally offensive.