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Rating: Stylized.
In the hats, in the trench coats, in the cigarettes, and everything else. If you notice at the beginning of the film, it appears written in large, comic-like font "1940". "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" is set in an era when men smoked cigarettes and at night went to steal jewels, then returned home to beautiful women waiting for them. This is the stuff old films and old comics are made of, not real life, and this is what the film talks about. It's a story inflated with art, like a soufflé. The film is somewhat reminiscent of "Dick Tracy", although much more stylized and for the hypnosis issue, an old Bob Hope film.
It's a 2001 film that features Allen as CW Briggs, a scruffy investigator of a large American insurance group. His work is conducted with skill despite everything, but his private life is falling apart. In the insurance group headed by a very obese Dan Aykroyd, a young ambitious woman arrives, Helen Hunt (Miss Fitzgerald), who will step on Briggs’ toes by contesting his outdated methods. It will be war. Among other things, Miss Fitzgerald is the very secret lover of Aykroyd/Cris Magruder, who keeps her in a precarious position between the possibility of leaving his wife and officially getting together with her and a hesitance that reeks of opportunism (as Briggs says "he wants to get into your pants"). One evening, at a birthday party, the two "enemies", during a show, will be hypnotized by a curious shady character who will manipulate their minds in successive phases. Apparently, hypnosis ends at the end of the show, but with magic words like Madagascar (for her) and Constantinople (for him), the two find themselves in a hypnotic state and thus at the mercy of the orders of the gifted swindler. Hypnotized, Briggs commits a couple of thefts and, once back to his senses, investigates Miss Fitzgerald, discovering many things about her private life. However, an external investigative agency puts the pressure on him, leading to his arrest. I prefer to stop the plot here to not spoil the taste of grotesque and somewhat unexpected developments.
At a certain point, a character in the film says: "before the horrific curtain of reality falls upon us". Here emerges the true personality of the American director who thinks of living constantly in a hypnotic trance, and everything seems apparently beautiful. The truth is that reality presents itself again and is not that pleasant. Hypnosis is another way of creating fantasies. Through the film's hypnotist, it's as if a kind of "film within a film" is born: a sort of comic mix between noir and sophisticated comedy (a bit like Billy Wilder). There are a lot of fierce exchanges between Allen/CW Briggs and Hunt/Betty Ann Fitzgerald, even if the female responses aren't particularly brilliant. As in 1940s films, men and women are in constant conflict, except in the finale, where without quite understanding how, peace and love break out. Numerous explosive jokes erupt every time Briggs opens his mouth, denoting a good form of artistic and comic performance.
Incredibly sexy and a seductress, don't forget Charlize Theron (as a rich and dissolute young woman without rules), who seduces "the rat" Briggs for a new life experience and due to hypnosis, is rejected.
Spectacular and meticulously rendered by cinematographer Zhao Fei. The costumes and settings are perfect and the smoky and rarefied atmosphere, especially after the testing ground of "Sweet and Lowdown" where Allen had already conveyed his guidelines. In summary, a good and highly enjoyable film.
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