Scarlett Johansson & Bill Murray in Lost in Translation (2003)
In 2003 Johansson also appeared in the astonishingly popular Lost in Translation with Bill Murray. An unconsummated Spring/Winter love affair that begins in a hotel bar in Japan is both morose and comforting. Getting the irony of the title leads us to A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004).
Alcohol is not a medicine for melancholy, as is certainly made clear in this strangely gripping romantic tale of a disillusioned writer and one of his past students as they swelter away in a fog of denial. Pursy (Scarlett Johansson) arrives and brings some sort of sanity to a situation that is cloyingly self destructive as the three bond into a nearly functional family unit.
Like Ghost World, A Love Song for Bobby Long is character driven with actors that demand your attention with finely honed performances. Pursy becomes the center of this universe from the moment she enters the film, gliding around Travolta’s and Macht’s characters with a confidence that is unburdened by expectation.
Scarlett Johansson in A Love Song for Bobby Long (2005)
Some narratives burn, some broil, but under Shainee Gabel’s direction the story simmers like a jambalaya. Gabel’s screenplay, based on the novel by Ronald Everett Capps, takes its time and lets the characters move naturally. There is not a scene or a sentence that is out of place. This is another showcase for Johansson’s talent that pits her opposite actors that she not only keeps up with, but surpasses.
LEFT: Scarlett Johansson & John Travolta RIGHT: Gabriel Macht, Scarlett Johansson & John Travolta in A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004)
The Perfect Score (2004) is a misfire with a talented cast. Fortunately, it didn’t hold anyone back. Both Johansson and Chris Evans survived to act another day.
The Island (2005), directed by Michael Bay, stars Johansson as Jordan Two Delta and Ewan McGregor as Lincoln Six Echo in a future that is as sterile as the the script. The leads are the only thing the film has going for it. It is yet another fiery distraction by the director that brought you Bad Boys II.
LEFT: Ewan McGregor & Scarlett Johansson RIGHT: Ewan McGregor, Scarlet Johansson & Steve Buscemi in The Island (2005)
Her next film is the first of three films she would appear in directed by Woody Allen. In Match Point (2005), Johansson is opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Emily Mortimer in what turns out to be a mystery with a strong Dial M for Murder vibe.
LEFT: Emily Mortimer & Jonathan Rhys Meyers RIGHT: Scarlett Johansson & Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Match Point (2005)
In her second film with Allen, she is again drawn into a mystery, but this time Allen stars as a hokey magician who inadvertently gets involved in an investigation instigated by a deceased reporter. The film also features Hugh Jackman. As usual, Allen manages to pull it off with a flourish.
Woody Allen, Scarlett Johansson & Hugh Jackman in Scoop ( 2006)
Scoop (2006) succeeds as light comedy that features Johansson as the one doing the investigating and dragging Allen’s character deeper into the fray. Allen wrote the script with Johansson in mind. It was because while working with her on Match Point, he saw a comedic side to her that he wanted explore.
Scarlett Johansson, Josh Hartnett & Hilary Swank in The Black Dahlia (2006)
Brian De Palma, much like Quentin Tarantino sometimes becomes so focused on what he is emulating that he fails to ever reach the heart of the matter. Their so called homages are just quick copies that retain the luridness and violence but reproduce none of the substance. Such is the case with De Palma’s The Black Dahlia (2006); a disappointing criss cross of a film noir that confuses plotting with shuffling cards. Scarlett Johansson is wasted, and even Hilary Swank’s incredible performance can’t save the film.
Speaking of shuffling cards, Christopher Nolan’s dazzling The Prestige (2006), brings the magic back in a big way with a well written and produced story of competing magicians. Johansson turns in another fine performance along with Michael Caine, Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Piper Perabo, Rebecca Hall, Andy Serkis, and David Bowie.
Facts, Rumors & Hearsay
Match Point
Match Point is Woody Allen’s favorite of his own films.
In a nod to Alfred Hitchcock, a playbill showing Woody Allen’s face in deadpan is briefly seen as Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) arrives at the Tate museum to meet Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson).
The painting of a girl with a red balloon on the wall that Chris walks along was done by Banksy, the graffiti artist from Bristol.
Scoop
Sidney Waterman (Allen) foreshadows his own death the evening that he and Sondra Pransky (Johansson) follow Peter Lyman (Jackman), whining that he won’t drive in London because he’s “…afraid he’ll die in a crash.”
The Island
Robert S. Fiveson, director of The Clonus Horror (1979), filed a copyright infringement suit against DreamWorks and Warner Brothers. The lawsuit cited almost one hundred points of similarity between Clonus and this film, and the court ruled that Fiveson made a prima facie case for infringement. DreamWorks settled before the case could go to trial, for an undisclosed seven-figure amount.
The original script was set one hundred years in the future, but they kept bringing it closer to the present for budgetary reasons.
The Prestige
Prestige originally meant a trick, from the Latin praestigium, meaning illusion.
This is one of three 2006 movies to feature magic and magicians as main characters. The other are The Illusionist (2006) and Scoop (2006), which also starred Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman.
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