Curse of the Jade Scorpion

A crack insurance investigator (writer/director Woody Allen) is hypnotized into pulling off a series of jewel heists, then unknowingly investigates his own crimes, all the while beset by a female efficiency expert (Helen Hunt) who is also the lover of his boss (Dan Aykroyd). Allen goes feather-light this time, suppressing neuroses into a carefully affectionate reconstruction of the screwball crime comedies of the 1940s; the laughs are few but the chuckles are several and the smiles are many. At 65, Allen is getting too old and wizened to be playing the diffident ladies’ man, and it’s a bit disappointing to see him fall into the old Hollywood trap of pairing leading men with women young enough to be their daughters. Still, if you can overlook the vanity of it, the film has its quaint charms.