8:00 PM, 9th May, 2007
Hugh Jackman seems to be in everything at the moment. Theres probably some juicy reason why, but if I start speculating about it here, the Film Group might be shut down by some big scary lawyer types, and I might have to go away for a while. Take heart, though, that he's playing an actual human in this film, not a rat, or a bird, or an amoeba, or whatever else he's been doing lately. He plays a toff: a juicy, upper-class bit of goods who might be a serial killer. Sondra (Johansson) is led his way by a ghost in a contraption; the ghost is a late journalist who's uncovered a lead on the Tarot Card Killer, and, understandably, is unable to pursue it, so hands it over to the first student journalist he happens upon. The contraption belongs to Splendini, AKA Sid Waterman (Allen), a fifth-rate conjurer who volunteers Sondra on stage to be sawn in half. Sondra and Sid band together to track down the toff, dissembling their way into high society with excruciating ineptitude, and all goes swimmingly (the pun will be apparent once you see the film) - until Sondra falls in love with the object of their chase. The film is lovely and gentle and funny, and classic Woody Allen. '
Helena Sverdlin