The Curse of the Jade Scorpion
Starring: Woody Allen, Helen Hunt, Charlize Theron, Brian Markinson, Dan Aykroyd
Directed by: Woody Allen
Running time: One hour and 50 minutes

If, for no other reason, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion is a cinematic event because it's the latest Woody Allen film. His excursions into labyrinthine plotting and slyly wise ironic exchanges are getting ever more rare and even more unwelcome on the distant shores of Bulgarian theatres.

His last film shown in theatrical wide release in Bulgaria was the delightful Bullets over Broadway eight years ago. Since then he has produced six more cinematic gems, which never graced the Hollywood-fed Bulgarian screens, bar the odd festival showing. The upside is that The Curse of the Jade Scorpion is a delicious prospect both for Allen aficionados and curious first-timers. The downside is that, despite its doubtless charm, the Curse falls behind the Allen standard of poignant comic observation and storytelling. It would be blasphemous to suggest that he has lost his master touch, but The Curse, much like his previous effort Small Time Crooks (recently released on video), feels a bit lightweight, and, yes, a bit tired. It fails to rise to the levels of intense satisfaction demanding repeated viewings, so well-know to Allen admirers.

The setup of the story is very promising. It takes us to the romantic golden days of Hollywood of the 1940s, the age of Chandler-like mysteries. Allen plays CW Briggs, an insurance scam specialist that believes he has seen it all. His boss Chris Magruder (Dan Akroyd) wants to heal his ailing business by hiring Betty Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt), a ruthless efficiency specialist. She is intelligent, sexy and despises CW to the bone. He in turn considers her a threat to his professional aura. She hates him and calls him names; he is witty and wisecracking, but is often left speechless by this she-adversary. This means either that Allen has become a more generous writer with age that allows himself to be one-upped by his onscreen opponents or this is a sad signal of his becoming unmotivated and tired of being the funniest man in his films. In either case, this backfires because his fans may feel robbed of witnessing his all-conquering self-parody, but I digress.

CW and Betty are present at an exhibiting session of a hypnotist where the latter (David Ogden Stiers) bewitches them into submission at the sound of a specific word. Whenever Betty hears "Madagascar" she starts seeing CW as the most beautiful and desired man in the world; whenever CW hears the word "Constantinople" he is ready to do whatever the hypnotist orders. Alarmingly, that means breaking into the houses he himself has burglar-proofed.

This all seems like a wonderful setup for a tasty comedy. Unfortunately, the story never gets far away form its promising beginnings; it never lives up to the potential we savour at the start. Te be sure, Allen still manages to assemble a motley star-cast (Charlize Theron and Elizabeth Berkley are added to the names already mentioned) which seems quite privileged to be involved. Undeniably, they have fun, especially Hunt who seems to enjoys abusing and than seducing the hapless CW. CW however is more dependable than inspired with the Allen performance on show.

That said, his fans, myself included, would have him this way than never have him at all.