Movie Review: "Scoop" (2024)

When the case about Prince Andrew’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein broke, I actually think the entire world knew about it at the time. However, not a lot of people knew who was involved in getting that all important interview. One of the most earth-shattering cases to break in modern history (and I don’t know why since everyone and their pet dog knew what kind of vermin Jeffrey Epstein was by the time the prince became involved), it was covered by a few women who went all the way to get answers out of everyone who was around. It was not an easy watch considering the subject matter, but this film is the adaptation of the memoir written by the firm but fair, Sam McAllister - the first one with her foot in the Buckingham Palace door. It is so very important.

Let’s get on with the advantages of this movie first and foremost. The first advantage is that it tells the story that I think most of us didn’t see. The story behind that interview…and I mean ‘that’ interview. It is a great, but often disjointed story. When I say disjointed, that's where the issues arise. My investigation of the film is therefore, underway...

When it comes to the sections before the interview, we see that Sam McAllister is between a rock and a hard place in which she must try to do her job whilst others are constantly trying to pull her back in from stirring tensions. This character, portrayed by Billie Piper, is perhaps the best example of acting in this film from a woman. Billie Piper portrays Sam McAllister with energy in which she is brave and always has her head held high. I think that since Doctor Who, this has got to be the best of Billie Piper’s acting I have seen.

Gillian Anderson needs no introduction because she is consistently brilliant. In this movie as well, she portrays the intelligent and incredibly hard-working Emily Maitlis who was a former journalist at the BBC. I think that her performance was especially good because it contrasted perfectly with the hard-going performance given by Billie Piper. Both characters oppose each other where one is stubborn, the other is easy-going, where one does the right thing for the job, the other does the right thing morally because it is difficult.

The roles of the other characters however were uninspiring with rather bland and cliché dialogue being offered to them. The dynamics at the time focused too much on the public portrait of the prince rather than the story itself and the people who put it out and sometimes, there was too much time spent on some lacklustre conversation. As much as it matters to her story, I don’t think we need the subplot of Sam Mcallister’s kid’s love life even being suggested. The ending was a bit bland but to be perfectly honest, there is still no answer now.

From the standpoint of actually being interesting, I had only one problem with the movie. It’s far too recent. I mean, everyone already saw this happen in real time only a couple of years ago and to make this movie now might be timely, but it questions why people would watch it when they’ve already seen the real thing. I think this movie would have been much better if it were made for the next generation - a generation who perhaps had not watched that interview on television when it was first broadcast. It would have maybe made more of an impact. It is just my opinion on how to get a larger audience for the movie but I do believe that maybe five years is not enough time for people to feel like this is an important moment in history. Maybe ten or fifteen years down the line, but not five or less.

All in all, though this movie was well-made, there were a few things that could have been tweaked. I think it covers an important topic but it is too recent in the public memory, however it does do the job of being interesting enough to sit through even if you are perfectly aware of what happens. Maybe it ends on a weird note and the storyline is too crowded with characters, but it does the job of perhaps being a step or two down from the movie ‘Spotlight’ in its ability to convey such a ground-breaking story.