Movie Notes: Curse Of The Jade Scorpion

August 14th, 2009

= 3 stars

Starring Helen Hunt, Dan Aykroyd, Charlize Theron
Directed by Woody Allen

Synopsis

Insurance investigator CW Briggs (Woody Allen) hates his boss Miss Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt). At an office dinner, both are hypnotized by a mysterious magician and become unwitting pawns in a string of robberies.

The Good

• Detailed and sumptuous look to recreate the 1940s.
• The magician is a satisfying continuation of Allen’s occult theme, begun with Alice.
• Several witty situations — due to his day job, Briggs is assignment to investigate the same crimes he commits at night while under hypnosis — he’s literally searching for himself. When Fitzgerald begins committing crimes, both her and Briggs suspect the other of being a thief.
• Snappy wisecracks from Allen are bounced right back by Hunt — they play well off of each other, especially since the Fitzgerald character is aggressively ahead of her time.
  

The Bad

• Allen at this point looks like a walking zombie, with his schtick of waving hands and complaining feeling increasingly tired. Many of his protestations are echoes of zingers past.
• Young actresses in superfluous roles — namely Charlize Theron and Elizabeth Berkeley. The casting feels gratuitous, and one scene where Theron seduces Briggs with a bottle of vodka and a skimpy outfit comes off as more creepy than funny.
• Allen’s done a bang up job with other period pieces, namely The Purple Rose of Cairo and Bullets Over Broadway, but this outing feels a bit strained, without nostalgic love for the period’s films or music (Sweet And Lowdown).
• The mysterious magician is eventually a real dud of a villain, hiding behind a phone for most of the movie and is eventually caught far too easily.
• The romantic situation is also wrapped up a bit too tidily my tastes. While it’s true opposites can attract, I never really got the sense that these two’s constant banter were actually sparks of passion.
  

Conclusion

With an equal amount of likes and dislikes, the result is a wash. If you don’t mind the nebbish Allen character, it’s worth a rental, but compared to the previous Allen heist film Small Time Crooks, I have to put a vote for stupid above these smart alecks.

Next Woody Allen Movie: Hollywood Ending
Previous Woody Allen Movie: Small Time Crooks

IMDB: Curse Of The Jade Scorpion
Wikipedia: Curse Of The Jade Scorpion
Rotten Tomatoes: Curse Of The Jade Scorpion