The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

Movie: The Curse of the Jade Scorpion
Release Date: August 24, 2001 (USA)
Runtime: 1 hour 50 minutes
Writer & Director: Woody Allen
Cinematography: Zhao Fei

Cast: Woody Allen (CW Briggs)
Helen Hunt (Betty Ann Fitzgerald)
David Ogden Stiers (Voltan - the magician)
Charlize Theron (Laura Kensington)

Tagline: Love Stings

CW Briggs (Woody Allen) is a veteran insurance investigator in 1940s New York, with many successes. Betty Ann Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt) is a newly hired efficiency expert in the company he works for, with the task of reorganizing the office. They don't like each other - or at least that's what they think. During a night out with the rest of the office employees, they go to watch Voltan (David Ogden Stiers), a magician who secretly hypnotizes both of them, in order to use them for his dirty schemes. The next evening, Briggs makes his first robbery, stealing precious jewels while he was in a trance. And when he wakes up in the morning he has no memory of it. Things get really complicated when he himself starts investigating the case.

What really touched me in this movie is the pleasant eye-candy cinematography by Zhao Fei. He makes the brown colors of the studio interiors cozy and autumnal, and Santo Loquasto's top-notch interior decorating with pleasing wallpapered rooms that remind us of the 1940’s New York.

Trivia:
Woody Allen is very secretive with his scripts when he is working. Helen Hunt was allowed to read the entire script when she was offered the part, but she had to read it in one sitting and then give it back to the courier boy who was waiting to take it back.

Poster Courtesy: Wikipedia
Photo Courtesy: Dream Works