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Movie Review by:
Jim "Good Old JR" Rutkowski
Directed by: Allen Coulter
Written by: Paul Bernbaum, Howard Korder
Starring: Adrien Brody, Diane Lane, Ben Affleck
Running time: 126 minutes,
Released: 09/08/06.
Rated R for language, some violence
and sexual content.. |
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 "Hollywoodland
is a period-piece thriller about the mysterious death of
TV's original Superman, George Reeves. But underneath that
1959 mystery that a down-on-his-luck detective (Adrien
Brody) tries to unravel is one of the smartest movies about
fame and Hollywood to come along in ages. Go ahead, crave
the fame, the movie says. But ask, "How much is enough?"
Service the career, but decide, going in, where you draw the
line, morally. And figure out, in advance, how you would
deal with that label "has been" or "never made it" when
people apply it to you.
Hollywoodland hums along on a handful of Oscar-worthy
performances. There's Ben Affleck, seen in flashback as
Reeves, a modestly dashing leading man who never got to
lead, a long-employed wannabe who took the "crummy" TV show
out of desperation and who saw his dreams crash because of
it. Diane Lane wears every minute of her 41 years in
portraying Toni Mannix, the older-woman who "kept" Reeves,
the wife of a menacing MGM honcho (a ferocious Bob Hoskins).
Robin Tunney is the brazen, gold-digging "fiancee" who may
know more about this death than she's letting on.
All fall under the suspicion of Louis Simo, the gumshoe
hired by Reeves' mom (Lois Smith) to find out what "really"
happened to her boy. His TV show had been canceled. He was
having trouble finding work. And then, during a party in
June 1959, he turned up naked and dead in the house Toni
Mannix bought for him.
Reeves, who was so promising as a bit player in Gone With
the Wind, was a serious has-been/never-was when TV made him
immortal. Affleck, in what is his most fully formed,
hide-the-movie-star performance, lets us see the charm, the
ambition and the pain of the TV "Man of Steel". The script
lets Affleck play Reeves as a proud man, an actor with a
sense of dignity. Affleck revels in the momentary glory that
millions upon millions of American kids gave Reeves, and
winces when Reeves' role is reduced in From Here to Eternity
because audiences see him only as the fellow in the padded
tights. His TV fame meant an end to his dreams of stardom
built on his talent, and Affleck lets us feel that.
Brody is the ostensible star of this, giving the screen yet
another cynical, rebel-without-a-tie private eye. But
Affleck is the revelation here. He hasn't acted this much in
ages.
Lane, playing a woman fully aware of her trophy-wife status,
and that she has "seven good years" left in her looks, lays
it all out as a lonely soul clinging to youth, sex and
happiness through Reeves. It's a raw performance, and she
gives this character fathomless depths of love, jealousy and
fear.
Hoskins and Tunney are two kinds of flat-out scary. Tunney
(Prison Break, Cherish) was born to play femme fatales, and
Hoskins grows more menacing with each passing year, which is
what made his funny turn in Mrs.Henderson Presents so novel.
Director Allen Coulter cut his teeth on TV series from Sex
and the City to The Sopranos, and if Holly- woodland has a
flaw, it's that it has the texture, the look and the feel of
TV. There's nothing fancy in the direction, nothing flashy
in the camera work, and the movie lacks the tone of film
noir, the richness of movie memory, the oversaturated colors
that imbue modern thrillers set in that era with their lurid
appeal.
But like those TV series, this is a character actor's
showcase. From Brody, a leading man thanks to his Oscar --
but really a character lead -- to Hoskins, Lane, Tunney and
even Affleck, these are compact, indelible performances that
signal who and what their characters are in an instant. Bit
players from Molly Parker to Richard Fancy stand out. Joe
Spano, a veteran of TV's Hill Street Blues, perfectly
suggests the quiet cunning of infamous MGM "fixer" Howard
Strickling, who kept ugly stories off the police blotter and
out of the news.
It's just another sordid tale from a city famous for them.
But Hollywoodland explains so much about today's Hollywood,
from the cozy ways the cops have always played ball with the
studios and stars, to the career-killing pain of
type-casting.
Here is the dream fulfilled, laid bare for a world of
wannabes. And it's not just dashed hopes that leave some
dreamers fretting. It's the ones that come true. |
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HOLLYWOODLAND ©
2006 Copyright Holder.
All Rights Reserved
Review © 2006 Alternate Reality, Inc. |
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