Plot: An insider account of how the women of “Newsnight” secured Prince Andrew’s infamous 2019 interview about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Review: Sometimes, pursuing a news story is as fascinating as the story itself. From All The President’s Men to Spotlight, countless films have looked at the reporters and journalists who have investigated the most significant revelations of all time and have garnered awards for the recreation of the tireless journey. The distance between the event and the dramatization often reminds audiences of the stakes at play, but Scoop chronicles a news story that occurred just six years ago. Led by Billie Piper as the producer who secured the shocking interview alongside Gillian Anderson, Romola Garai, Keeley Hawes, and Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew, Scoop has some exciting stories from an insider’s point of view. Still, it fails to generate anything we did not already get from the broadcast itself. Scoop is well-made but does not seem to be as relevant as it thinks it is.
Starting with photographs taken in 2010 linking Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell) to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Scoop spends the majority of its running time in 2019 in the weeks leading up to the now infamous Newsnight interview between journalist Emily Maitlis (Gillian Anderson) and the Duke of York. At the time, the BBC was making significant budget cuts and installing new leadership to restore the ship. With Esme Wren (Romola Garai) now overseeing Newsnight, interview producer Sam McAlister (Billie Piper) uses her skills to contact Prince Andrew’s private secretary Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Hawes) to arrange an interview with the Duke. Thirsk, a longtime employee of the Royal Family, is convinced that if given the right platform the charm of Prince Andrew could convince the public of his innocence. The Duke seems oblivious to his actions’ stakes for the Royal Family, and they agree to the interview.
The first hour of Scoop is spent showing us the pursuit of the interview and giving us some background on McAlister. A single mother supporting her teenage son with the help of her mother, McAlister is brash and outspoken. Billie Piper plays McAlister as a British version of Erin Brockovich. Decked out in a Chanel coat with wavy hair and lots of makeup, McAlister is loud and proud in private, which belies an intuitive way of negotiating with people. Her demeanor builds barriers between McAlister and her boss, Esme Wren, and the acclaimed Emily Maitlis. Still, the three women connect over the knowledge that securing Prince Andrew for the interview is vital in the public interest. Everyone seems aware of the stakes of what this interview could reveal. Everyone that is except Prince Andrew. As the evidence continues to mount, the Prince focuses more on his day-to-day. The film presents him as somewhat clueless, with scenes focused on the weird organization of his stuffed animals and his repeated reference to Queen Elizabeth as “Mummy.”
While this is, first and foremost, a story about Sam McAlister’s role in securing the interview, Scoop does feature a lot of solid work from Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell. In some individual moments, both actors get to do what they do best, with Anderson great in a scene set in the park before her interview while Sewell, restrained by imitating Prince Andrew rather than playing a character, has a sad nude scene towards the end of the movie that speaks volumes. Most of the film’s last half hour is an exacting recreation of the interview featuring Anderson and Sewell replicating the broadcast verbatim but accentuated by the camera panning to the various behind-the-scenes reactions as it takes place. There is some interest in these moments, but Scoop never mines them for more than brief glimpses. So much focus is placed on the interview itself that after the movie wraps, it feels like the movie has been more about the actual sit-down rather than what it represents.
Scoop looks really good, directed by veteran television helmer Philip Martin and written by Peter Moffat. The recreations of Buckingham Palace and the interiors of the Newsnight offices at the BBC are where the movie spends the bulk of its running time, but seeing Sam McAlister taking the bus to and from work through the streets of London evokes the workmanlike and not glamorous work behind the scenes of a news program. While the interactions between the actors are good, especially between Gillian Anderson and Billie Piper, the movie does not do anything with the heavy material. So much of Scoop is spent building up the interview’s significance, but it never feels like it will not happen. There is little interference from the Queen or the Royal Family and no major roadblocks getting it to the public, so why are we meant to care? Philip Martin, who directed seven episodes of The Crown, treats this movie as a supplemental chapter in that series rather than anything that truly stands on its own.
Scoop is not a bad movie but it is something of a pointless one. Advertised as the story of the key women who brought this story to the public, it is never positioned as a story of feminism or women facing challenges in a male-dominated industry. Even if the angle had been a female-led cast in a story about women getting the upper hand against a man who sexually predated underage girls, the movie could have been something more energetic. Instead, this is a rote retelling of events without any gravitas behind it. It is a shame because all of the performances in Scoop were worthy of stronger material. Scoop feels like an hour-long dramatization stretched to a feature-length running time. It isn’t boring enough to be bad but not special enough to be good.
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