The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion

Synopsis: New York, 1940. C.W.Biggs is an ace insurance investigator whose work life is being turned upside down by gung-ho office efficiency expert Betty Ann Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt). But at an office party the two are hypnotized by a jewel thief who plans to use them for his own devices.

Does anyone go to Woody Allen movies other than Woody Allen fans? If you are one of the latter you'll find The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion reasonably diverting but, despite what the publicity claims, definitely not one of his best (it seems these days that virtually every movie he releases is "his best in years"). If you're not a fan, this is not going to be the one to convert you.

Aside from Allen, there are the well-established elements - opening with the usual black & white credits which reveal some variations of Allen's usual production team notably the absence of Jean Doumanian with whom the director had fallen out, we launch in to Allen familiar wise-cracking style, set against the backdrop of the typically excellent retro production design with its mellow autumnal tonings and a swinging jazz soundtrack. What is increasingly odd in Allen's compulsive film-making, which regularly churns out a new permutation of hte same elements each year, is the director himself. There is little difference between his screen persona in this and the one in his first film Take The Money And Run (1969) and for that matter any film in between - diffident, self-deprecating, nervous and given to chronic fanatasizing. That in this film C.W.Biggs is a legend in his own insurance world lunchtime is somewhat anomalous and ill-fitting. What worked in 1969 is certainly less appealing in 2002 and Allen is way too old to be playing the hybrid Philip Marlowe/schlemiel character, C.W. Biggs, with an inexplicable charm for the ladies (Allen sets himself up for snogs with both Charlize Theron and Helen Hunt).

Nothwithstanding the familiarity of Allen's style his period films offer rewards over-and-above his familiar schtick and The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion and as light entertainment is a decent performer. 

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