CW Briggs: Woody Allen	Laura Kensington: Charlize Theron
Betty Ann Fitzgerald: Helen Hunt	Al: Brian Markinson
Chris Magruder: Dan Aykroyd	George Bond: Wallace Shawn
Jill: Elizabeth Berkley	Voltan: David Ogden Stiers
Director/Writer: Woody Allen

30 Second Bottom Line: CW Briggs is a top-notch insurance investigator who uses his own methods and haphazard ways to catch his crook. Betty Ann Fitzgerald is a new efficiency expert in his company who clashes head on with Briggs and his methods. At a company outing, the story takes off when they are hypnotized to commit crimes and to be in love with each other.

Story Line: Set in the jazzy, smoky 1940's, The Curse of The Jade Scorpion is a classic Woody Allen period film filled with style, sepia-toned sets, dapper clothing and classic characters.

CW Briggs (Woody Allen), a scrawny, scruffy, determined insurance investigator, continues to crack the most challenging cases. The key to his solving these crimes is that he puts himself in the mindset of the criminal. He takes great pride in his work. It is his life. There are some references to his once having been married, but by the barrenness of his apartment and his work-only filled life, absolutely no remnants of a wife remain.

Betty Ann Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt), Vassar-educated and totally in control, seems intent on squashing CW Briggs like the bug she thinks he is. She is in a power position and is using all of it. In addition to her on-the -job skills, she is enmeshed in a steamy clandestine affair with her married boss, Magruder (Dan Aykroyd). CW Briggs does not thrive on Betty Ann's efficient filing systems--he is an instinct-led investigator who always gets the crime solved. The power and personality struggle sends sparks flying, typically with Betty Ann verbally pulverizing a stumbling CW.

One night after work, a group from the office goes to a club to celebrate a co-worker's birthday. CW and Betty Ann are picked out of the audience to be hypnotized as part of the show. They fall under the magician's spell in moments and are told they are madly in love and in fact are married to each other. They gaze enraptured into each other's eyes and kiss passionately to the glee of the audience.

After they're awaken, they remember none of it and so the evening ends. Later that night CW receives a call at home and is immediately re-hypnotized by the magician/crook Voltan (David Ogden Stiers). Briggs is then instructed to steal jewels from estates he has securitized. It's a wonderful plan for the evil Voltan. CW is a great crook, who of course remembers none of his capers, and is having a very hard time cracking his own case. He suspects Betty Ann and in his snooping discovers her affair with Magruder, and her vulnerability. Finally CW is caught and arrested, and Voltan turns to hypnotizing Betty Ann to continue the thefts. CW and Betty Ann have come to trust each other through these events and crimes. During the final raid on Voltan, Betty Ann plants a big hot kiss on CW and the fireworks truly explode. Is this love or is it hypnosis?

Tell Me More About It: The Curse is a love/life story of conflicts. An investigator has the mind of a criminal and those who hate each other the most may be most vulnerable to falling in love.

Betty Ann the efficiency expert, appears buttoned up and so sure of herself. We see her crushed by the tortuous emotions of her affair with her married boss, see her vulnerability and lack of control. Briggs, though threatened by her intelligence, verbal acumen and power, shows great warmth and compassion for her when he witnesses her pain. The characters Woody has created are real, complex, and yet stereotypical of the era. Laura Kensington(Charlize Theron) is a sizzling siren of a sleazy rich girl vamp, evoking the lusty drama of a bygone era. Magruder (Dan Aykroyd) is an insurance manager prig with no backbone. Briggs co-workers are good guys, living the working man's life in a smoky, gritty 1940's insurance office.

This is a fun movie, well-written and very well directed. Despite the criticism he's gotten in his personal life, Woody Allen draws tremendously talented actors into his films and creates another delightful gem. The story isn't sophisticated or even emotionally complicated like some of Allen's work. This is light entertainment, yet it captures a time and place and style that resonates in the music, mood and characters. If you liked Small Time Crooks, you will enjoy this film.

Woody Allen: Small Time Crooks, Hannah & Her Sisters

Dan Aykroyd: Ghostbusters, Trading Places

Elizabeth Berkley; Any Given Sunday

Helen Hunt: As Good As It Gets, Cast Away

Brian Markinson: Small Time Crooks, Apollo 13

Wallace Shawn: Radio Days, Manhattan

David Ogden Stiers: Mighty Aphrodite, Everyone Says I love You

Charlize Theron: Celebrity, The Legend of Bagger Vance